Please cite this article in press as: U. Dashdorj, et al., Int. J. Biol. Macromol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2015.06.026 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model BIOMAC 5172 1–7 International Journal of Biological Macromolecules xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Biological Macromolecules j ourna l h o mepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijbiomac Fabrication and characterization of electrospun zein/Ag nanocomposite mats for wound dressing applications Uyanga Dashdorj a Q1 , Mark Kenneth Reyes a , Afeesh Rajan Unnithan a , Arjun Prasad Tiwari a , Batgerel Tumurbaatar a,c , Chan Hee Park a,b,∗ , Cheol Sang Kim a,b,∗ a Department of Bionanosystem Engineering, Graduate School, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea b Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea c Power Engineering School, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 27 February 2015 Received in revised form 14 May 2015 Accepted 12 June 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Wound dressing Zein Silver Nanofibers Electrospinning a b s t r a c t Wound dressing is a very important factor in the process of wound healing as proper wound care can accelerate the recovery of the wound. In this study, zein nanofibrous mats with fiber diameters around 350–500 nm were prepared by electrospinning and silver (Ag) nanoparticles around 20 nm were con- currently synthesized in situ into the mats. The electrospun nanofibers were characterized by Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. Cell via- bility and activity of fibroblasts cells in zein/Ag mats were also evaluated and results demonstrated good cytocompatibility and attachment of cells on the composite nanofibers. Also, the bactericidal activ- ity of the fabricated mats against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) was investigated via zone of inhibition test and results showed high anti-bacterial performance. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Q3 Wound care management is an important area to be focused since wound healing is an absolute prerequisite for survival. Cur- rently, extensive efforts are being made in this field to prevent the wound infection by making use of the extreme possibility of biocompatible nanomaterials. The important properties of nano- material that makes it an ideal candidate for wound dressing application include the biocompatibility, maintenance of moist environment around the wound surface to allow better gaseous exchange and more importantly it should act as a barrier to prevent the microorganisms and remove excess exudates [1,2]. Microbes are the major reason for infection and the easiest path for the microorganisms to enter into the body is through the open wounds. As they enter into the body they reach into deeper portions of the tissue and grew immediately by forming colonies leading in to internal infections [3]. The remedy for such infections is the use ∗ Corresponding authors at: Department of Bionanosystem Engineering, Graduate Q2 School, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 63 270 4284; fax: +82 63 270 2460. E-mail addresses: biochan@jbnu.ac.kr (C.H. Park), chskim@jbnu.ac.kr (C.S. Kim). of wound dressing materials that possess enhanced antimicrobial activity to achieve rapid wound healing [4]. In recent decades, electrospun polymeric nanofibers have been widely used as a potential wound dressing materials [5–7]. Zein is known to be both biocompatible and biodegradable plant protein that has been employed in development and fabrication of several films and substrates for biomedical applications [8,9]. It is a major protein of corn and it has been used in the food industry as a coat- ing material. Zein possesses the advantage of being renewable and biodegradable. Zein microspheres have also been investigated for use as carriers to protect drugs from stomach acid. Also, zein pos- sesses remarkable characteristics like compressibility, flexibility, high toughness, glossiness [2] and antioxidant property [10]. Zein has been employed for numerous applications like drug delivery system [11], food packaging and materials scaffolding for cell/tissue engineering [12]. Kanjanapongkul et al. reported an easy fabrica- tion of zein nanofibers employing a simple electrospinning process and found that nanofibers can be successfully produced by proper control of electrospinning parameters like voltage, tip to collector distance and solution viscosity [13]. Antibacterial property is an absolute prerequisite for effi- cient wound healing [2,14,15]. Silver nanoparticles with ranging from 10 to 100 nm have reported for its strong antibacterial http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2015.06.026 0141-8130/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62