Electrospun PVA/AGAROSE Blends as Prospective Wound Healing Patches for Foot Ulcers

Foot ulcers are an open sore or wound. Anyone who has diabetes can develop a foot ulcer. Prevention of diabetic foot ulcers and timely treatment of ulcers using effective techniques is the need of the hour. The dressing of the ulcers plays a crucial role in managing the situation. Nanofibrous meshes are being explored as prospective candidates for this purpose. In the current study, for the first time a blend of PVA and agarose has been electrospun and characterized to assess its suitability to function as a wound healing patch. Uniform nanofibres were electrospun into a mat and their physicochemical properties were studied. The electrospun blend performed better than pure PVA electrospun mat in having comparable mechanical properties, better water vapour transmission rate and retained their physical structure when immersed in phosphate buffer solution. All the results indicate the blend electrospun mat's suitability to function as a wound healing patch for foot ulcers.