Luna Innovations Incorporated
NANOFIBER-REINFORCED HYDROGEL MEDICAL DRESSINGS

Abstract:

Medical dressings include a non-woven polymeric nanofiber mat embedded within a chitosan hydrogel matrix. The dressings may be obtained by electro spinning of polymeric nanofibers and thereafter incorporating a chitosan hydrogel into interstices of the mat by vacuum or positive pressure assistance. The resulting medical dressings may be optically transparent (e.g., at least about 50% up to about 95% light transmittance), flexible, and mechanically robust. The dressings may also incorporate self-adhesion promoters to allow self-adhesion to biological tissue, e.g., ocular surfaces, and/or therapeutic agents which are capable of delivering therapeutics (e.g. stem cells, drugs and the like) to the tissue surface. The dressings are especially useful as ocular bandages for the treatment and repair of ocular wounds.