Freeze-dried porous PVA–gelatin scaffold incorporated with FSIC bioactive material for wound healing applications

The present study aimed to develop and optimize a freeze-dried porous scaffold incorporated with FSIC bioactive material for wound healing applications. A 2³ full factorial design was employed to optimize scaffold composition using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), bioactive material, and gelatin concentrations as independent variables, while swelling index and tensile strength were selected as optimization responses. The optimized scaffold was prepared by solvent casting followed by freeze-drying and characterized using FTIR, XRD, DSC, FESEM, and EDS analyses. The optimized bioactive scaffold consisted of 5.24% w/v PVA, 1.28% w/v bioactive material, and 2.93% w/v gelatin. The scaffold exhibited high swelling capacity (1218 ± 52%), porosity (84.6 ± 2.3%), controlled degradation behavior, and suitable mechanical stability. FESEM analysis demonstrated a highly porous interconnected architecture, while XRD and EDS analyses confirmed successful incorporation of the FSIC bioactive material within the scaffold matrix. The scaffold exhibited antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with inhibition zones of 23.0 ± 0.8 mm and 20.0 ± 0.6 mm, respectively. In addition, the scaffold demonstrated good hemocompatibility, high cytocompatibility, enhanced cell migration, accelerated wound contraction, and improved wound healing in the in vivo excision wound model. Biochemical evaluation further confirmed reduced inflammatory cytokine expression and enhanced collagen deposition in the scaffold-treated group. The obtained findings demonstrated that the developed porous bioactive scaffold possesses promising physicochemical and biological properties suitable for wound healing and tissue regeneration applications.