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Updated: Feb 19, 2026
Development of a Benchtop Model for Evaluating the Compatibility of Wound Dressing Materials with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Systems
Published on: May 2, 2025
Electrospun bioactive mats enriched with Ca-polyphosphate/retinol nanospheres as potential wound dressing
Werner E G Müller1, Emad Tolba1, Bernhard Dorweiler2
1ERC Advanced Investigator Grant Research Group at the Institute for Physiological Chemistry, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Duesbergweg 6, d-55128 Mainz, Germany.
Background:
While electrospun materials have been frequently used in tissue engineering no wound dressings exist that significantly improved wound healing effectively.
Methods:
We succeeded to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) electrospun poly(D,l-lactide) (PLA) fiber mats into which nanospheres, formed from amorphous calcium polyphosphate (polyP) nanoparticles (NP) and encapsulated retinol ("retinol/aCa-polyP-NS" nanospheres [NS]), had been incorporated.
Results:
Experiments with MC3T3-E1 cells revealed that co-incubation of the cells with Ca-polyP together with retinol (or incubation with retinol/aCa-polyP-NS) resulted in a significant synergistic effect on cell growth compared with particle-free polyP complexed with Ca2+ or amorphous Ca-polyP NPs and retinol alone. Incubation of the cells in the presence of the retinol/aCa-polyP NSs also caused a significant increase of the expression levels of the genes encoding for the fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), as well as of the genes encoding for leptin and the leptin receptor. In contrast, the single components, soluble Na-polyP, complexed to Ca2+, or retinol-free aCa-polyP NPs, and retinol, had no significant effect on the expression of these genes.
Conclusions:
These results indicate that the PLA fibers, supplemented with aCa-polyP-NP or retinol/aCa-polyP-NS, elicit morphogenetic activity, suggesting that these fiber mats, along with the antibacterial effect of polyP, have a beneficial potential as wound dressings combining antimicrobial and regenerative (wound healing) properties.
General Significance:
The PLA-based fiber mats, containing retinol and polyP nanoparticles, provide promising bioactive meshes that are urgently needed as dressings for chronic wounds.
