Recent studies in wound dressing applications offer new
therapies
to promote the wound healing process. The main strategy of this study
is to combine the traditional perspective of using medicinal oils
with polymeric scaffolds manufactured by an engineering approach to
fabricate a potential tissue engineering product that provides both
new tissue formation and wound healing. Thus,Hypericum
perforatumoil (HPO) and vitamin A palmitate (VAP)
incorporated gelatin (Gt) nanofibrous scaffolds were successfully
prepared by the electrospinning method. Tannic acid (TA) was used
as the cross-linking agent. The amounts of VAP and HPO loaded in the
base Gt solution [15% w/v in 4:6 v/v acetic acid/deionized water]
were 5 and 50 wt % (based on the weight of Gt), respectively. The
obtained scaffolds were studied regarding their microstructure, chemical
structure, thermal stability, antibacterial activity, in vitro release
study, and cellular proliferation assay. In the light of these studies,
it was determined that VAP and HPO were incorporated successfully
in Gt nanofibers cross-linked with TA. Release kinetic tests confirmed
that the patterns of TA and VAP release were consistent with the Higuchi
model, whereas HPO release was consistent with the first-order kinetic
model. In addition, this membrane was biocompatible with L929 fibroblast
cells and had antibacterial activity and thermal stability. This preliminary
study suggests potential applicability of the proposed dressing to
treat skin wounds in clinics.