Transparent silk fibroin film-facilitated infected-wound healing through antibacterial, improved fibroblast adhesion and immune modulation

Abstract

Pluronic F127 modified silk fibroin film could load different types of antibacterial agents to accelerate wound recovery by promoting fibroblast adhesion, eradicating bacteria and facilitating angiogenesis and re-epithelialization.

Abstract

The clinical application of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) films for wound treatment is restricted by its undesirable mechanical properties and lack of antibacterial activity. Herein, different pluronic polymers were introduced to optimize their mechanical properties and the RSF film with 2.5% pluronic F127 (RSF _PF127) stood out to address the above issues owing to its satisfactory mechanical properties, hydrophilicity, and transmittance. Diverse antibacterial agents (curcumin, Ag nanoparticles, and antimicrobial peptide KR-12) were separately encapsulated in RSF _PF127 to endow it with antibacterial activity. In vitro experiments revealed that the medicated RSF _PF127 could persistently release drugs and had desirable bioactivities toward killing bacteria, promoting fibroblast adhesion, and modulating macrophage polarization. In vivo experiments revealed that medicated RSF _PF127 not only eradicated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the wound area and inhibited inflammatory responses, but also facilitated angiogenesis and re-epithelialization, regardless of the types of antibacterial agents, thus accelerating the recovery of infected wounds. These results demonstrate that RSF _PF127 is an ideal matrix platform to load different types of drugs for application as wound dressings.