Hyaluronic acid nanofiber mats loaded with antimicrobial peptide towards wound dressing applications

Chronic wounds are highly susceptible to bacterial infections. Previously, we loaded a natural antimicrobial peptide of low cost and high safety, epsilon-polylysine (EPL), into the electrospun nanofiber mat of starch. The mat showed comparable antibacterial activity but markedly better biocompatibility than the commercial silvercontaining dressing. To further optimize material property, in this paper, we use hyaluronic acid (HA) to replace starch. Results show that EPL-loaded HA nanofiber mats (OHA-EPL) have suitable water vapor permeability, good biocompatibility and broad-spectrum antibacterial property similar to that of EPL-loaded starch nanofiber mat (Starch-EPL). Differently, the content of EPL in OHA-EPL nanofiber mats increases from 19.2% to 27.9%, the tensile strength rises from 0.3 MPa to 0.6 MPa, the elongation grows from 62.0% to 130.0%, and the fiber degradation and EPL release accelerates. In addition, OHA-EPL can absorb up to 26.3-times exudate, which is much higher than Starch-EPL (15.1 times). Combined with the excellent biological activity of HA, OHA-EPL may produce better therapeutic effects than Starch-EPL.