Erythropoietin/aloe vera-releasing wet-electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan sponge-like wound dressing: In vitro and in vivo studies

This study aimed to develop a recombinant human erythropoietin/aloe vera gel–releasing polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan wound dressing by wet-electrospinning method and investigate the synergistic effects of erythropoietin and aloe vera gel on the excisional wound healing. The polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan (4:1 (w/w)) solution was electrospun into an aloe vera gel–containing water coagulation bath and then coated with the recombinant human erythropoietin–loaded chitosan nanoparticles prepared via ionic gelation technique. The developed sponge-like film was able to release the erythropoietin and aloe vera gel for at least 7 and 1 days, respectively. The dressing was non-toxic to L929 fibroblastic cell line and non-adherent to the wound bed with the contact angle of 67.93° ± 2.31°. It also possessed the water-uptake capacity and water vapor transmission rate of 26.40% ± 3.37% and 2584.00 ± 144.67 g m ⁻² , respectively. The in vivo study demonstrated the synergistic wound-healing effects of aloe vera gel and erythropoietin on the full-thickness excisional wounds of Wistar rats. The erythropoietin/aloe vera gel–releasing dressing had significantly (n = 4, p < 0.005) higher wound closure (92.96% ± 10.09%) than the sterile gauze (73.89% ± 2.61%), as the control group, after 2 weeks. The differences observed between the wound closure percentages of the aloe vera gel–releasing dressing (85.93% ± 6.46%) and the erythropoietin/aloe vera gel–releasing dressing and control group were not statistically significant.