https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-021-00941-6 REVIEW ARTICLE Biomedical applications of electrospun nanofibers in the management of diabetic wounds Divya Pamu 1  · Vyshnavi Tallapaneni 1  · Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Reddy Karri 1  · Sachin Kumar Singh 2 Accepted: 8 February 2021 © Controlled Release Society 2021 Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex disease that afects almost all the body’s vital organs. Around 415 million people have been diagnosed with DM worldwide, and most of them are due to type 2 DM. The incidence of DM is estimated to increase by 642 million individuals by 2040. DM is considered to have many complications among which diabetic wound (DW) is one of the most distressing complication. DW afects 15% of people with diabetes and is triggered by the loss of glycaemic control, peripheral neuropathy, vascular diseases, and immunosuppression. For timely treatment, early detection, debride- ment, ofoading, and controlling infection are crucial. Even though several treatments are available, the understanding of overlying diabetes-related wound healing mechanisms as therapeutic options has increased dramatically over the past decades. Conventional dressings are cost-efective; however, they are not productive enough to promote the overall process of DW healing. Thanks to tissue engineering developments, one of the promising current trends in innovative wound dress- ings such as hydrocolloids, hydrogels, scafolds, flms, and nanofbers which merges traditional healing agents and modern products/practices. Nanofbers prepared by electrospinning with enormous porosity, excellent absorption of moisture, the better exchange rate of oxygen, and antibacterial activities have increased interest. The application of these nanofbers can be extended by starting with a careful selection of polymers, loading with active therapeutic moieties such as peptides, proteins, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), and stem cells, etc. to make them as potential dosage forms in the management of DWs. This review explains the potential applications of electrospun nanofbers in DW healing. Keywords Diabetic wound · Electrospinning · Nanofbers · Angiogenesis · Tissue engineering Introduction DM is a metabolic disorder with a very high incidence in almost all countries globally. It was estimated that in 2019, 463 million people worldwide have been sufering from DM. The fgure is likely to increase to 700 million, growing about 55% in the next two decades [1]. Inefectual therapeutic involvement in diabetic patients may lead to long-term com- plications such as neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy, leading to other comorbidities such as impaired wound heal- ing. DW is a pathological indication of neuropathy known to impair motor, autonomic, and sensory nerves’ functioning, causing disability in patients [1]. A study including 2006 people with diabetes found that almost 528 (26.3%) patients underwent minor amputation, whereas 106 (5.28%) patients underwent major amputation. The presence of infection and vascular diseases further increased the risk of amputation among the DW-infected patients. Moreover, ulcers that extended heal exhibited considerable resistance to healing [2, 3]. These complications may increase the mortality rate and reduce the life expectancy in DW patients than patients without DWs [4]. Therefore, to address these above com- plications and related challenges in DW management, there is an urgent need for an efective drug delivery system for localized drug delivery and better control of the DW. Although various delivery systems such as scafolds, hydrogels, ointments, and creams have been proposed for DWs, nanofbers have established promising results in neo- vascularization, tissue regeneration, reduction in scarring, and faster healing. These nanofbers are ultrafne polymeric * Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Reddy Karri ksnreddy87@gmail.com 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Ooty, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India 2 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India / Published online: 21 March 2021 Drug Delivery and Translational Research (2022) 12:158–166