Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Sep 27;16(19):2733.
doi: 10.3390/polym16192733.

Copper Nanoparticle Loaded Electrospun Patches for Infected Wound Treatment: From Development to In-Vivo Application

Anna Butsyk  1 , Yulia Varava  2 , Roman Moskalenko  1 , Yevheniia Husak  3 , Artem Piddubnyi  1 , Anastasiia Denysenko  2 , Valeriia Korniienko  2 , Agne Ramanaviciute  4 , Rafal Banasiuk  5 , Maksym Pogorielov  2   6 , Arunas Ramanavicius  4 , Viktoriia Korniienko  2   6
Affiliations

Copper Nanoparticle Loaded Electrospun Patches for Infected Wound Treatment: From Development to In-Vivo Application

Anna Butsyk et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

This study investigates the development and application of electrospun wound dressings based on polylactic acid (PLA) nanofibers, chitosan, and copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) for the treatment of purulent skin wounds. The materials were evaluated for their structural, antibacterial, and wound healing properties using an animal model. PLA/Ch-CuNPs demonstrated the most significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, surpassing the other tested materials. The integration of CuNPs into the nanofiber matrices not only enhanced the antimicrobial efficacy but also maintained the structural integrity and biocompatibility of the dressings. In vivo experiments using a rat model showed that PLA/Ch-CuNPs facilitated faster wound healing with reduced exudative and inflammatory responses compared to PLA alone or PLA-CuNPs. Histological and immunohistochemical assessments revealed that the combination of PLA, chitosan, and CuNPs mitigated the inflammatory processes and promoted tissue regeneration more effectively. However, this study identified potential toxicity related to copper ions, emphasizing the need for careful optimization of CuNP concentrations. These findings suggest that PLA/Ch-CuNPs could serve as a potent, cost-effective wound dressing with broad-spectrum antibacterial properties, addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant infections and enhancing wound healing outcomes.

Keywords: Escherichia coli; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Staphylococcus aureus; chitosan; copper nanoparticles; electrospinning; infected wound; nanomedicine; polylactic acid; wound patches.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
Wound defects in the laboratory animals with different treatments throughout the experiment.
Figure A2
Figure A2
Histological evaluation of internal organs after application of different dressing materials for infected wound healing on the 3rd day after treatment initiation. Magnification of the image corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 100 µm).
Figure A3
Figure A3
Histological evaluation of internal organs after application of different dressing materials for infected wound healing on the 14th day after treatment initiation. Magnification of the image corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 100 µm).
Figure A4
Figure A4
Histological evaluation of internal organs after application of different dressing materials for infected wound healing on the 21st day after treatment initiation. Magnification of the image corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 100 µm).
Figure 1
Figure 1
SEM and EDX analyses of the electrospun fibers. (A) PLA and PLA/Ch as spun fibers; (B) CuNPs morphology (upper row) with EDX analyses (down row); (C) PLA and PLA/Ch fibers enriched with CuNPs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Dynamics of bacterial growth. Different electrospun membranes were incubated with different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria for 2, 4, and 6 h: (A) E. coli, (B) P. aeruginosa, and (C) S. aureus. **—p < 0.01; ***—p < 0.001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Wound healing process in the laboratory animal model. The wound defect was treated with different patches applied between day 1 and day 21 (images of additional days are represented in Figure A1).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Dynamic of wound size in the laboratory animals. The size of the wound defect was measured daily within 21 days of the treatment.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Microbiological composition of the wound. The graphs show the bacterial contamination of the wound in experimental animals at different time points of the treatment by the following bacteria: (A) S. aureus. (B) P. aeruginosa. (C) E. coli.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Histological and immunohistochemical study of the skin tissue samples from experimental animals on the 3rd day of the treatment. Magnification of the main image corresponds to ×100 (scale bar is equal to 200 µm), and magnification of the insert corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 25 µm).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Histological and immunohistochemical study of the skin tissue samples from experimental animals on the 14th day of the treatment. Magnification of the main image corresponds to ×100 (scale bar is equal to 200 µm), and magnification of the insert corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 25 µm).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Histological and immunohistochemical study of the skin tissue samples from experimental animals on the 21st day of the treatment. Magnification of the main image corresponds to ×100 (scale bar is equal to 200 µm), and magnification of the insert corresponds to ×400 (scale bar is equal to 25 µm).
Figure 9
Figure 9
The evaluation of the cellular composition in the inflammatory infiltrate in the tissue samples from experimental animals. Skin tissue samples were examined immunohistochemically with further quantitative evaluation of CD68+, CD163+, and MPO+ immune cells at the different time points of the treatment. *—p < 0.05; **—p < 0.01; ***—p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dou J.L., Jiang Y.W., Xie J.Q., Zhang X.G. New Is Old, and Old Is New: Recent Advances in Antibiotic-Based, Antibiotic-Free and Ethnomedical Treatments against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Wound Infections. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016;17:617. doi: 10.3390/ijms17050617. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lipsky B.A., Berendt A.R., Deery H.G., Embil J.M., Joseph W.S., Karchmer A.W., LeFrock J.L., Lew D.P., Mader J.T., Norden C., et al. Diagnosis and treatment of diabetic foot infections. Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 2006;117:212s–238s. doi: 10.1097/01.prs.0000222737.09322.77. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Negut I., Grumezescu V., Grumezescu A.M. Treatment Strategies for Infected Wounds. Molecules. 2018;23:2392. doi: 10.3390/molecules23092392. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hu Z., Qin Z., Qu Y., Wang F., Huang B., Chen G., Liu X., Yin L. Cell electrospinning and its application in wound healing: Principles, techniques and prospects. Burns Trauma. 2023;11:tkad028. doi: 10.1093/burnst/tkad028. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tottoli E.M., Dorati R., Genta I., Chiesa E., Pisani S., Conti B. Skin Wound Healing Process and New Emerging Technologies for Skin Wound Care and Regeneration. Pharmaceutics. 2020;12:735. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12080735. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources