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Antimicrobial electrospun chitosan-polyethylene oxide (CS-PEO) nanofibrous mats containing cefazolin, fumed silica (F. silica) and cefazolin-loaded fumed silica nanoparticles (NPs) were produced for biomedical applications. The FE-SEM images revealed that the F. silica and F. silica-cefazolin NPs had average diameters of 40±10 and 60±15nm, respectively. Also, the fibers diameters were approximately 160±30, 90±20 and 70±15nm for the pure CS-PEO, CS-PEO-1% F. silica and CS-PEO-1% F. silica-0.5% cefazolin nanofibrous mats, respectively indicating addition of F. silica and cefazolin loaded F. silica NPs to the CS-PEO mat led to decreasing the nanofiber diameter. Both of the CS-PEO mats containing 2.5% cefazolin and 1% F. silica-0.50% cefazolin showed 100% bactericidal activities against both S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. The cefazolin release from mats was sharply increased within first 24 and 6hours for the CS-PEO mats including 2.5% cefazolin and 1% F. silica-0.50% cefazolin but after that the drug was released very slowly. The improved hydrophilicity, higher tensile strength and sustained drug release for CS-PEO-1% F. silica-0.50% cefazolin suggested that it was the best nanocomposite tissue/device for biomedical applications among the mats CS-PEO-2.5% cefazolin and CS-PEO-1% F. silica. The wound healing ability of the CS-PEO-F. silica-cefazolin mat was evaluated on the wounded skins of the female Wistar rats and it was shown that the wounded skins of the rats were almost entirely healed after ten days using this mat as a wound dressing scaffold., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Antimicrobial chitosan-polyethylene oxide (CS-PEO) nanofibrous mats containing ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and hydrocortisone-imipenem/cilastatin-loaded ZnO NPs were produced by electrospinning technique. The FE-SEM images displayed that the spherical ZnO NPs were ∼70-200nm in size and the CS-PEO nanofibers were very uniform and free of any beads which had average diameters within the range of ∼20-130nm. For all of the nanofibrous mats, the water uptakes were the highest in acidic medium but they were decreased in the buffer and the least swellings were obtained in the alkaline environment. The drug incorporated mat preserved its bactericidal activity even after it was utilized in the release experiment for 8days in the PBS buffer. The hydrocortisone release was increased to 82% within first 12h while the release rate of imipenem/cilastatin was very much slower so that 20% of the drug was released during this period of time suggesting this nanofibrous mat is very suitable to inhibit inflammation (by hydrocortisone) and infection (using imipenem/cilastatin antibiotic and ZnO NPs) principally for the wound dressing purposes., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)