Chemical and Materials Sciences: Research Findings Vol. 4

Tissue engineering has emerged as an innovative solution to develop alternatives to traditional grafts, particularly with scaffolds. These structures, intended for use as skin grafts, must meet specific requirements, including biocompatibility, a porous structure, mechanical properties similar to human skin, and antibacterial capabilities. The interest in tissue engineering is growing in the scientific and medical communities, as it can solve actual problems regarding donor tissues, wound healing and drug delivery systems. Nanofibers are gaining relevance in this topic thanks to their excellent mechanical properties and similarities to the human skin.

Polylactic acid (PLA) as polymer and Hexafluoro isopropanol (HFIP) as solvent, both from Sigma-Aldrich, were used in the membrane formation. This project has explored how combining the nanofibers’ membranes created of PLA, made by electrospinning, with a dissolution of lanoline and cinnamon essential oil not only imitates the human skin, as it was demonstrated in a later project, but also obtains an antibacterial character. Analytical techniques such as a spectrophotometer, an electrokinetic analyser, a scanning electron microscope, a Fourier transform infrared spectroscope, and an optical tensiometer were employed.

Results confirmed successful integration and migration of the cinnamon oil, with antibacterial efficacy achieved against specific bacterial strains, as hypothesised. Notably, scaffolds composed of seven layers exhibited migration behaviour closely aligned with theoretical expectations. Additionally, it has also been found that the scaffold presents an antibacterial character when analysing the Escherichia coli bacteria.

In conclusion, among all the analytical methods used, the drug delivery test and the FT-IR test have been the most useful in order to determine the migration of the emulsion. With the drug delivery test, it could also be determined how the migration of LAT changes depending on the number of layers used to form the scaffolds.