Synthetic polymer based electrospun scaffolds for wound healing applications

Healing a wound is a complex process involving preparative and proliferative stages. It involves extensive cell proliferation and differentiation, and production of angiogenic growth factors and collagen. For effective healing an environment that mimics the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) is required. In recent years, electrospinning has been extensively investigated for the purpose of creating scaffolds for uses in wound healing. By using electrostatic forces, electrospinning can create polymeric strands that range in size from nano to micron. Even though, electrospinning is a versatile technique in terms of material handling, and variety of polymers and their mixes (natural, synthetic, and semi-synthetic) can be easily electrospun using same equipment. Synthetic polymers have substantial uses in the creation of electrospun nanofibers throughout time. They are preferred for fabricating electrospun dressings due to their superior mechanical, thermal, and spinnability qualities, which offer an advantage over their natural counterparts in terms of customizable properties and minimal batch-to-batch composition variation. In the present review, emphasis has been made to discuss most commonly used synthetic polymers for fabricating electrospun nanofibers. A dedicated section on synthetic polymer-based stimuli responsive electrospun dressings, especially for wound healing applications, is also discussed with suitable examples.