Biocompatible sodium alginate–silk fibroin antibacterial microspheres from a microfluidic platform for infected wound repair

Micro/nano drug delivery systems can provide ideal controlled drug release. Microfluidic chip technology plays an important role in the preparation of microspheres. Sodium alginate (SA) has been used to prepare microspheres as drug carriers owing to its good biosafety and easy preparation. However, these microspheres lack antimicrobial activity and drug loading efficiency, which prevent their application for infected wound repair. Although silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) possess broad-spectrum antibiotic activity, liquid mixtures of AgNPs and SA are too unstable to fabricate drug-loaded microspheres using microfluidic chip technology. In this study, AgNPs were coated with silk fibroin (SF) and then dispersed in SA solution to fabricate antibacterial microspheres (denoted SA-SF-Ag) using microfluidic chip technology. SA-SF-Ag effectively inhibited the growth of microorganisms and gradually released AgNPs. Moreover, in vivo results showed that SA-SF-Ag promoted infected wound healing and angiogenesis by killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the surface of infected skin wounds of mouse models. This study offers a new method to integrate AgNPs into organic polymeric microspheres for the treatment of infected wounds.