Alternative to Modern Wound Dressings: Developing a Biodegradable Collagen Analog

Recent studies in modern wound dressings have focused on producing materials that promote wound healing by mimicking biofunctions in the wound healing process. Breakthroughs in this field have been achieved by electrospinning nanofibers from collagen to best mimic the morphology and components of the extracellular matrix. However, these dressings are expensive, not always degradable, and do not always contain antibacterial properties. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a biodegradable polyester that could be used with chitosan, an antibacterial biomacromolecule, to develop electrospun nanofibers that can be incorporated into wound dressings. The ideal wound dressing would be a hemostatic material that is biodegradable, inexpensive, inherently antibacterial, and promotes rapid wound healing. Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to develop a material that incorporates these properties and can be electrospun into a nanofiber scaffold. Towards this effort, this project has focused on the synthesis of a novel biomimetic polycaprolactone (bPCL) prepared by modifying PCL via amide coupling reactions to attach molecules that mimic the amino acids naturally occurring in collagen. It is anticipated that these moieties will promote healing and hemostatic properties essential for wound dressings. Thus far, electrospinning protocols for PCL/chitosan fiber mats have been established through electrospinning trials and it is anticipated that these protocols can be applied to bPCL/chitosan solutions to prepare degradable, biomimetic, antibacterial nanofiber scaffolds. These novel mats will be analyzed via degradation and in vitro assays. It is expected that these studies will help assess the utility of these mats in biomedical applications