Nanofibrous Hydrogel Preparation via Electrospinning for Drug Delivery and Wound Healing

With its high surface area and porous structure, a nanofibrous scaffold helps with protein adsorption, binding of ligands, diffusion of molecules, biomimicking of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and promoting stem cell differentiation. Electrospinning is a polymer processing method to obtain nonwoven fiber mats with fiber diameters ranging from tens of nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. This research presents a nanofibrous hydrogel incorporating hyaluronic acid (HA) prepared via electrospinning, a method that holds promise for drug delivery and wound healing applications. The process involves optimizing the components, including the effective polymer (HA), the carrier polymer (polyethylene oxide) that improves spinnability, the crosslinker (polyethylene glycol diacrylate), and the photo initiator (Irgacure 2959) to create an electrospun fibrous unwoven mat with continuous and uniform fibrous morphology. This mat is crosslinked using ultraviolet (UV) light and swelled under deionized water to form the nanofibrous hydrogel. The nanoscale morphology of the electrospun fiber mat, the mechanical properties of the nanofibrous hydrogel, and the release rate of drug molecules from the hydrogel under acid, base, or neutral solutions related to the formulation of polymer solutions for electrospinning are further studied. We find that a higher ratio of PEO improves fiber morphology but decreases the mechanical properties of the crosslinked hydrogel. Because cells can sense the stiffness of the surrounding matrix and respond accordingly, the tuning of mechanical properties of fibrous hydrogel facilitates versatile adaptation to the physiological environment. This hydrogel system has the potential for the application of wet healing dressing to reduce scar formation, degradable bioscaffold for long-term treatment of knee pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA), and cell therapy by promoting Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) differentiation.