Electrospinning 3D bioactive glasses for wound healing.

An electrospinning technique was used to produce three-dimensional (3D) bioactive glass fibrous scaffolds, in the SiO-CaO sol-gel system, for wound healing applications. Previously, it was thought that 3D cotton wool-like structures could only be produced from sol-gel when the sol contained calcium nitrate, implying that the Ca and its electronic charge had a significant effect on the structure produced. Here, fibres with a 3D appearance were also electrospun from compositions containing only silica. A polymer binding agent was added to inorganic sol-gel solutions, enabling electrospinning prior to bioactive glass network formation and the polymer was removed by calcination. While the addition of Ca contributes to the 3D morphology, here we show that other factors, such as relative humidity, play an important role in producing the 3D cotton-wool-like macrostructure of the fibres. A human dermal fibroblast cell line (CD-18CO) was exposed to dissolution products of the samples. Cell proliferation and metabolic activity tests were carried out and a VEGF ELISA showed a significant increase in VEGF production in cells exposed to the bioactive glass samples compared to control in DMEM. A novel SiO-CaO nanofibrous scaffold was created that showed tailorable physical and dissolution properties, the control and composition of these release products are important for directing desirable wound healing interactions.