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Background: Vaginal dysbiosis, a change in the beneficial vaginal microbiome, leads to a significant depletion in the essential lactobacilli thus increasing the possibility of vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis. Probiotics have gained more attention as a means of delivering exogenous lactobacilli but one of the challenges in delivery strategies is maintaining and improving their viability. The objective of this study is to enhance the viability of Lactobacillus spp., via encapsulation in hyaluronic acid/polyvinyl alcohol hybrid electrospun nanofibers. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) composite nanofibers integrated with Lactobacillus spp. were fabricated by electrospinning. The survival of Lactobacillus spp. after its immobilization in electrospun nanofibers with polyvinyl alcohol and hyaluronic acid was evaluated. Results: Scanning electron microscopy indicated larger average diameters in PVA/HA nanofibers with Lactobacillus spp. encapsulation (0.189 ± 0.041 µm to 0.231 ± 0.061 µm between D3 and D4, and 0.177 ± 0.043 µm to 0.212 ± 0.041 µm between D5 and D6) which showed that the nanofibers had the bacterial cells successfully enclosed in them. The viability of the lactic acid bacteria enclosed in the PVA/HA nanofibers was observed to decrease by more than 2-log units. Conclusion: The electrospun nanofiber-based delivery system is promising for the encapsulation and delivery of lactic acid bacteria to the vagina to combat recurrent vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrospinning has emerged as one of the major technologies for designing and fabricating tissue engineering membranes. The resemblance of the electrospun fiber structure to blood capillaries endowed them with unique capabilities to mimic the native tissue biological characteristics, while the high surface‐to‐volume ratio enables them to exert a controlled release of drug directly to the exposed interstitial tissue. This research attempts to compare the characteristics of different electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/hyaluronic acid (PVA/HA) composite material nanofibrous membranes in order to identify the optimal material‐fabrication combination for wound dressing and skin tissue engineering applications. Far‐field electrospinning equipped with both rotatory and wire collectors is considered for membrane fabrication. PVA with different concentrations and molecular weights of HA are electrospun as nanofibrous membranes considering a voltage of 30 kV on both types of collectors. Comprehensive characterization is conducted including morphological, chemical, thermal, mechanical, and in vitro mucoadhesion analysis. In vitro cell viability/proliferation studies are also carried out and pointed out that the designed membranes are cytocompatible, and able to support keratinocytes proliferation. All these results proved that the fabricated PVA/HA nanofibrous membranes are suitable for wound dressing and skin tissue engineering applications, the optimal material‐fabrication combination is also determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]