Medicated tri-layer fibers based on cellulose acetate and polyvinylpyrrolidone for enhanced antibacterial and wound healing properties.

Wound dressing is commonly used for skin injuries. The design of wound dressing typically stems from the principles of open-wound management such as infection prevention, moisture balance and healing response. A new wound dressing comprising polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-berberine hydrochloride (BHC)/PVP-cellulose acetate (CA)-BHC/CA-aloin tri-layer Janus fiber was successfully fabricated using trifluid side-by-side electrospinning for antibacterial and wound healing functions. The fibrous membrane can hold 5.090 ± 0.276 times of its own water mass and achieve 6 h of microenvironment moisture retention. In vitro antibacterial results show that BHC exhibited selective resistance to S. aureus. The nanofibers were noncytotoxic and showed good cell adhesion properties and enhanced cell proliferation effect compared with BHC or aloin only tri-layer nanofibers. Owing to the specially designed tri-layer Janus structure, the in vitro drug-release profile of drugs-loaded fibrous membrane showed a combination of two-stage release for BHC (76.093 % ± 1.813 % release in first hour and 98.526 % ± 0.604 % release in 6 h) and sustained release for aloin (88.376 % ± 5.282 % release in 6 h). Therefore, the tri-layer Janus structure can be a potential choice for wound dressing application.