Beijing - Polyurethane fibres could help wound healing, workers at the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences have found in work published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
Polyurethane-based wound dressings are widely used to promote healing in cuts by providing a suitably moist environment. This work takes the use of polyurethane a step further.
The work investigates the influence that nanomaterials with an affinity for human cells can have on speeding cell attachment and directional migration toward rapid wound healing.
Researchers said that they were inspired by the anisotropic protein nanofibres in scab to build a polyurethane nanofibrous membrane with an aligned structure and apply that to
This membrane showed good affinity for wound-healing-related cells and could guide cell migration in the direction of anisotropic PU nanofibres. Also, the morphology and distribution of two key wound healing components: F-actin and paxillin of cells which attached themselves in the healing process, were influenced by the underlying nanofibers. Directional nanofibres had a greater impact on wound healing than randomly arranged fibres.
Cytophilic membranes made using polyurethane nanofibres are promising in as interfacial biomaterials for rapid wound healing, said the authors. They may also have applications in bone repair, and building of neural networks.
