The Fabrication and Characterization of Electrospun PVA-Snail Mucin Nanofiber Membrane

Abstract

Snail mucin (SM) has been reported containing antimicrobial properties. This electrospun PVA-SM solution research aims to develop and characterize the nanofiber membrane for wound healing application. The PVA-SM solutions with various concentrations (1%, 3%, 5%, and 7% (w/w)) were prepared by mixing the PVA, distilled water, and SM extracted from a local snail. The PVA-SM solutions were then electrospun at an optimized parameter. The morphology and tensile properties of the nanofiber membrane fabricated were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and universal testing machine. The nanofiber size diameter was measured using image analysis software. Results: PVA-SM nanofiber membrane bead-free was successfully fabricated. Nanofiber diameter with high uniformity was found in the range of 100-300 nm. The SM concentration of 3% resulted in the smallest nanofiber diameter with an average diameter of 190 ±28.7 nm leading to the highest tensile strength (6.5 MPa), yet its elastic modulus was still higher than that of the natural skin. Whereas the other SM concentrations produced lower tensile strengths achieving around half of the one. In this work, the relation of the polymer solutions properties with the resulted nanofiber membrane was evaluated and explained. Based on the tensile properties, the fabricated nanofiber membrane is potentially used in biomedical applications.