•Manuka honey/silk fibroin (MH/SF) fibrous matrices were prepared by green process.•MH/SF fibrous matrices favor cell attachment and growth.•MH/SF fibrous matrices demonstrated high antibacterial ability.•MH/SF fibrous matrices showed good performance on improving wound healing.Wound dressing plays an irreplaceable role in preventing infection and accelerating healing of wounds, especially the chronic non-healing wounds. Recently, the electrospun silk fibroin (SF) fibrous matrices is regarded as an ideal candidate for wound healing in virtue of its excellent skin affinity and good permeability for air and water. Manuka honey (MH) has demonstrated its unique properties in wound healing, including anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial function as well as promoting tissue growth and reducing pain of patients. Here we report the feasibility of developing MH/SF composite fibrous matrices as antimicrobial wound dressing. SF fibrous matrices loading different amount of MH were manufactured by green electrospinning. The FTIR spectra indicated that MH was successfully loaded into the SF fibers. The composite fibers show smooth morphology and their diameter increases with MH content increased. Interestingly, the incorporation of MH significantly improved the antimicrobial activity of SF fibrous matrices, without negative effect on the excellent biocompatibility of SF. Moreover, the MH/SF composite fibrous matrices showed good performance on improving wound healing according to the data of animal experiment. Our findings suggest as-prepared natural green composite matrices combining the merits of both SF and MH could be a promising candidate for wound dressing.Schematic illustration for the fabrication of Manuka honey-loaded silk fibroin composite fibrous mats.Download high-res image (90KB)Download full-size image

•We successfully fabricated a novel grape seed extract (GSE)-loaded silk fibroin (SF) nanofibers by green electrospinning.•Our data demonstrated the GSE-loaded SF nanofibrous mats has excellent cytocompatibility and significantly enhance the proliferation of skin cells.•The GSE-loaded SF nanofibrous mats showed a superior antioxidant capacity which can significantly improve the survive rate of skin cells suffering from oxidative stress.•This GSE-loaded SF nanofibrous mats may find promising application in skin care, skin regeneration and wound healing.Silk fibroin (SF) from Bombyx mori has an excellent biocompatibility and thus be widely applied in the biomedical field. Recently, various SF-based composite nanofibers have been developed for more demanding applications. Additionally, grape seed extract (GSE) has been demonstrated to be powerful on antioxidation. In the present study, we dedicate to fabricate a GSE-loaded SF/polyethylene oxide (PEO) composite nanofiber by green electrospinning. Our results indicated the successful loading of GSE into the SF/PEO composite nanofibers. The introduction of GSE did not affect the morphology of the SF/PEO nanofibers and GSE can be released from the nanofibers with a sustained manner. Furthermore, comparing with the raw SF/PEO nanofibrous mats, the GSE-loaded SF/PEO nanofibrous mats significantly enhanced the proliferation of the skin fibroblasts and also protected them against the damage from tert-butyl hydroperoxide-induced oxidative stress. All these findings suggest a promising potential of this novel GSE-loaded SF/PEO composite nanofibrous mats applied in skin care, tissue regeneration and wound healing.

A co-delivery system with two or more anticancer drugs has been proposed to minimize the dosage of drug and to achieve the synergistic therapeutic effect in cancer therapy. In this study, we present a dual drug delivery system for the co-release of two anticancer drugs doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and hydroxycamptothecin (CPT). To achieve this goal, DOX and CPT were first separately loaded into mesoporous silica and hydroxyapatite nanocarriers, thus, the two prepared drug loaded nanocarriers were then simultaneously incorporated into poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanofibers by electrospinning. The as-prepared medicated nanofibers were well-characterized by different assays, and the results demonstrated that both of the two drug loaded nanocarriers were successfully incorporated into PLGA nanofibers. The in vitro release study indicated that the loaded DOX and CPT exhibited a sustained and controlled release behavior from the dual drug loaded nanofibers. Furthermore, the dual drug loaded nanofibers displayed a superior capacity of inhibiting HeLa cells in vitro to the single drug loaded PLGA nanofibers. Thus, the synthesized dual drug loaded composite nanofibers may find a promising application for cancer therapy.

In this work, we reported on the preparation and skin benefits of L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (VC-2-p)-loaded silk fibroin (SF) nanofibrous matrices for the first time. The matrices was fabricated using a facile eco-friendly electrospinning processing. With a post treatment of 75 v/v% ethanol vapor, the structure of the matrices transformed from unstable silk I form into water-stable silk II. In vitro release studies confirmed VC-2-p disassociated from SF nanofibrous matrices easily. Both neat and VC-2-p-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices were beneficial to mouse fibroblast L929 cells (L929 cells) adhering, spreading and proliferating against cover slips. Whereas compared with neat SF nanofibrous matrices, VC-2-p-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices significantly promoted the expression of collagen type I alpha 1 (Col1a1), as evidenced by real time PCR. Subsequently, the oxidative injury model further verified both matrices aided L929 cells through antioxidation to survive from tert-butyl hydroperoxide-induced oxidative stress (OS). Importantly, under severe OS, L929 cells on VC-2-p-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices maintained a higher mRNA level of Col1a1 as well as another two important functional genes, glutathione peroxidase 1 and catalase, than neat SF nanofibrous matrices. Our findings clearly indicated that the impressive skin benefits of SF nanofibrous matrices were further reinforced with the incorporation of VC-2-p, which implies the promising application of VC-2-p-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices in personal skin care and skin regeneration, including serving as wound dressings and anti-aging materials.