Long-term comparative study of the stability of nanofibrous materials from biodegradable polycaprolactone for skin wound dressing

This study deals with a long-term stability study of biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous dressings for skin applications, an important parameter for the storage of materials prior to actual application. Nanofibrous materials generally have suitable properties for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, such as high porosity with small pore size, high areal density of fibers, large specific surface area, and these materials are able to mimic natural skin extracellular matrix with their fibrous structure.  These properties allow nanofibrous dressings to provide the required protection to damaged tissues while promoting the wound-healing process. However, the issue of their long-term stability and degradation behaviour is still under investigation. The aim of this study was to observe and compare the long-term stability of electrospun PCL nanofibrous dressings exposed to different storage conditions. The study focused on the effect of nanofibrous material parameters, which included the surface weight; the solvent system used during the preparation of the polymeric spinning solutions and last but not least, the effect of ethylene oxide sterilization on the stability of the nanofibrous planar dressing over a period of 6-12 months.

Keywords: Electrospinning, polycaprolactone, long-term stability, degradation, wound dressing