Robust Gradient Hydrogel-Loaded Nanofiber Fleshy Artificial Skin via A Coupled Microfluidic Electrospinning-Reactive Coating Strategy

Skin regeneration has attracted tremendous interest due to the important role of skin for human protection and beauty. Thus, methods allowing artificial skin to be carried out in a controllable fashion are potentially important for wound healing, which involves an intersection of materials, medicine, biology and other disciplines. Herein, aiming at a new general methodology for fleshy materials, we designed and fabricated a new hydrogel-loaded hydrophobic-hydrophilic nanofiber fleshy artificial skin. The gradient hydrogel-loaded nanofiber artificial skin integrates both advantages of nanofiber and hydrogel, exhibiting fleshy feature (comparability to real skin in terms of appearance, texture and function), excellent air permeability, compatibility, good mechanical and antibacterial property. Interestingly, the efficient transport channels are formed throughout the hydrogel-loaded nanofiber structure, which is beneficial for the water absorption and transfer. These advantages enable the establishment of a moist and favorable microenvironment, thus greatly accelerating wound healing process. This work couples microfluidic electrospinning with reactive coating technique, which is in favor of material design and fabrication with controllable and uniform structures. The hydrogel-loaded nanofiber fleshy artificial skin shows comparability to real skin in terms of beauty, texture and function, which would definitely provide new opportunities for the further optimization and upgrading of artificial skin. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved