Highly Aligned Electrospun Collagen/PCL Surgical Sutures with Sustained Release of Growth Factors for Wound Regeneration

Development of biocompatible and bioactive drug-loaded sutures is considered as an effective but challenging strategy for wound healing process by delivering biological drugs (e.g. antibiotics) or growth factors (e.g. bFGF) at the surgical wound sites. Conventional offline sutures strategies often lead to fast and uncontrollable release of drugs at wound sites, rendering wound healing become a longer and painful process for patients. Herein, we propose an online suture strategy to fabricate electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fibrous yarns, incorporated with both collagen (COL) and bFGF growth factor, to produce bFGF-COL@PCL sutures. Upon demonstrating the well-oriented and aligned fibrous microstructure, high mechanical properties, and controlled release of bFGF from bFGF-COL@PCL sutures in vitro, we then applied bFGF-COL@PCL sutures to an incision wound healing mouse model in vivo. Further in vivo study showed that as compared to the commercialized vicryl suture, bFGF-COL@PCL sutures significantly promot...