School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30605, United States.
Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30605, United States.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2022 Jul 11;8(7):3066-3077. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.2c00103. Epub 2022 Jun 15.
Clinical applications of scaffolds and implants have been associated with bacterial infection resulting in impaired tissue regeneration. Nanofibers provide a versatile structure for both antimicrobial molecule delivery and tissue engineering. In this study, the nitric oxide (NO) donor molecule -nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and the natural biodegradable polymer zein (ZN) were combined with silk fibroin (SF) to develop antibacterial and biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. The compatibility and intermolecular interactions of SF and ZN were studied using differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The incorporation of ZN increased the hydrophobicity of the fibers and resulted in a more controlled and prolonged NO release profile lasting for 48 h. Moreover, the degradation kinetics of the fibers was significantly improved after blending with ZN. The results of tensile testing indicated that the addition of ZN and GSNO had a positive effect on the strength and stretchability of SF fibers and did not adversely affect their mechanical properties. Finally, due to the antibacterial properties of both NO and ZN, the SF-ZN-GSNO fibers showed a synergistically high antibacterial efficacy with 91.6 ± 2.5% and 77.5 ± 3.1% reduction in viability of adhered and after 24 h exposure, respectively. The developed NO-releasing fibers were not only antibacterial but also non-cytotoxic and successfully enhanced the proliferation and growth of fibroblast cells, which was quantitatively studied by a CCK-8 assay and visually observed through fluorescent staining. Overall, SF-ZN-GSNO fibers developed in this study were biodegradable and highly antibacterial and showed great cytocompatibility with fibroblasts, indicating their promising potential for a range of tissue engineering and medical device applications.
支架和植入物的临床应用与细菌感染有关，导致组织再生受损。纳米纤维为抗菌分子的输送和组织工程提供了一种通用的结构。在这项研究中，一氧化氮（NO）供体分子-亚硝基谷胱甘肽（GSNO）和天然可生物降解聚合物玉米醇溶蛋白（ZN）与丝素（SF）结合，开发出用于组织工程应用的抗菌和可生物降解的纳米纤维支架。使用差示扫描量热法和傅里叶变换红外光谱研究了 SF 和 ZN 的相容性和分子间相互作用。ZN 的掺入增加了纤维的疏水性，并导致更可控和更持久的 NO 释放曲线，持续 48 小时。此外，ZN 共混后纤维的降解动力学显著提高。拉伸试验结果表明，ZN 和 GSNO 的添加对 SF 纤维的强度和拉伸性有积极影响，并且不会对其机械性能产生不利影响。最后，由于 NO 和 ZN 的抗菌特性，SF-ZN-GSNO 纤维表现出协同的高抗菌功效，粘附后 24 h 的存活率分别降低了 91.6 ± 2.5%和 77.5 ± 3.1%。开发的 NO 释放纤维不仅具有抗菌作用，而且无细胞毒性，并成功促进了成纤维细胞的增殖和生长，这通过 CCK-8 测定进行了定量研究，并通过荧光染色进行了直观观察。总体而言，本研究中开发的 SF-ZN-GSNO 纤维具有可生物降解性和高度抗菌性，并且与成纤维细胞具有很好的细胞相容性，表明其在一系列组织工程和医疗器械应用中具有广阔的应用前景。
