Fabrication and investigation of chitosan/PVA and chitosan/PVA/nisin nanofibers via electrospinning as potential wound dressing agents

The objective of this study was to fabricate and evaluate chitosan(CS)/polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) nanofibrous wound dressings incorporated with nisin and compare their performance with CS-PVA scaffolds. Nanofibers were produced via electrospinning under optimised conditions (18 kV voltage, 0.2 mL/h flow rate, and 120 mm tip-to-collector distance). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that incorporation of nisin increased the average fibre diameter from 114.5 nm to 125.8 nm, while porosity decreased from 89.13% to 86.21%. Antibacterial activity was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. CS-PVA scaffolds showed no inhibition, whereas CS-PVA-nisin exhibited significant antibacterial activity with inhibition zones of 34.5 mm for S. aureus and 25.4 mm for E. coli. FTIR confirmed the successful incorporation of nisin through characteristic peaks at 3330 cm-1 and 2918 cm-1. Addition of nisin did not significantly affect tensile strength (1.6 MPa for both samples), although tensile strain decreased from 8% to 5.1% and Young's modulus increased from 20 MPa to 31.37 MPa. Contact angle measurements increased from 49° to 59°, indicating reduced hydrophilicity. MTT assay results demonstrated high cell viability for both scaffolds (95.2% for CS-PVA and 94.7% for CS-PVA-nisin), confirming their non-cytotoxic nature Overall, CS-PVA-nisin nanofibers exhibited enhanced antibacterial performance while maintaining suitable mechanical properties and biocompatibility.