Development and evaluation of a strontium-doped berberine quantum dot-loaded nanofibrous dressing for accelerated wound healing in animal models.

Abstract

This research focused on fabricating a new type of wound dressing made from nanofibers infused with strontium-doped berberine carbon quantum dots (Str-Ber-CQD) to speed up healing and improve the quality of healed tissue. We applied a hydrothermal method using berberine as the carbon source to synthesize Str-Ber-CQD and then blended it into nanofibers made from scleroglucan/polyvinyl alcohol at different concentrations. The results showed that the CQDs have spherical morphology with a size of 3.6 ± 0.9 nm, an average hydrodynamic diameter of 53.2 ± 2.1 nm, and a PDI of 0.350. The XPS and EDX analysis showed that CQDs were composed of C, O, N, and Sr. The fabricated nanofibers have a uniform morphology with promising mechanical strength, swelling capacity, biodegradation, water vapor transmittance rate, and microbial barrier potential. The in vitro biological evaluations confirmed potent antioxidant and antibacterial activities and excellent hemocompatibility/cytocompatibility. The animal studies showed that the optimum structure (nanofibers/ Str-Ber-CQD 5 %) showed impressive results in animal tests involving full-thickness skin wounds. In summary, this study demonstrates that nanofibers/Str-CQD exhibited promising physical, chemical, and biological properties and can be considered a multifunctional wound dressing.