Coating of Silk Fabric Using PVA/Ciprofloxacin Hcl Nanofibers for Biomedical Applications

In recent years, fabrication of polymeric antibacterial wound dressing has gained most attention in controlling wound infections. Silk is also a member of the broad family of protein-based polmers. The silk produced by the lepidopteran insect Bombyx mori is a highly accepted material due to its long history as a very valuable textile fiber. Recently, additional applications have been developed for silk, mainly in the field of biotechnology. Regarding its importance in wound healing, silk fabric was incorporated with ciprofloxacin, as an antibiotic, on its surface coated with electro-spun PVA/ciprofloxacin nanofibers. Before coating, degumming was carried out using autoclave technique and properties of the silk fabric, before and after degumming process, was investigated by SEM, FTIR, mechanical properties and moisture absorbance measurement. The results of all analyses showed a reduction in fibers diameter, mechanical strength and moisture absorption after degumming process. Electrospinning condition was optimized and diameter of the nanofibers, with and without drug, was measured before coating. The results showed that addition of the drug increased electrical conductivity of electrospinning solution and resulted in finer nanofibers. Antibacterial test was performed using "disk diffusion method" with Escherichia coli (EC) and Staphylococcus aureus (SA) bacteria to compare the antibacterial properties of degummed and non-degummed silk fabrics alone and coated with nanofibers. Measurement of bacterial inhibition zone diameter showed no antibacterial activity for degummed and non-degummed silk fabrics alone. However, the sample coated with PVA/ciprofloxacin showed antibacterial activity. The antibacterial property for SA in both cases was the same, but for EC, the antibacterial activity of degummed silk fabric was more than that of non-degummed material.