The bacterial colonization of absorbable membranes used for guided tissue regeneration (GTR), as well as their rapid degradation that can cause their rupture, are considered the major reasons for clinical failure. To address this, composite membranes of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin (Gel) loaded with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs; 1, 3 and 6 wt% relative to PCL content) were fabricated by electrospinning. To fabricate homogeneous fibrillar membranes, acetic acid was used as a sole common solvent to enhance the miscibility of PCL and Gel in the electrospinning solutions. The effects of ZnO-NPs in the physico-chemical, mechanical and in vitro biological properties of composite membranes were studied. The composite membranes showed adequate mechanical properties to offer a satisfactory clinical manipulation and an excellent conformability to the defect site while their degradation rate seemed to be appropriate to allow successful regeneration of periodontal defects. The presence of ZnO-NPs in the composite membranes significantly decreased the planktonic and the biofilm growth of the Staphylococcus aureus over time. Finally, the viability of human osteoblasts and human gingival fibroblasts exposed to the composite membranes with 1 and 3 wt% of ZnO-NPs indicated that those membranes are not expected to negatively influence the ability of periodontal cells to repopulate the defect site during GTR treatments. The results here obtained suggest that composite membranes of PCL and Gel loaded with ZnO-NPs have the potential to be used as structurally stable GTR membranes with local antibacterial properties intended for enhancing clinical treatments.

中文翻译：

---

载有氧化锌纳米粒子的聚己内酯/明胶抗菌复合膜，用于引导组织再生。

用于引导组织再生（GTR）的可吸收膜的细菌定植以及可能导致其破裂的快速降解被认为是临床失败的主要原因。为了解决这个问题，通过电纺丝制备了负载有氧化锌纳米颗粒（ZnO-NP；相对于PCL含量为1、3和6 wt％）的聚己内酯（PCL）和明胶（Gel）的复合膜。为了制造均匀的原纤维膜，使用乙酸作为唯一的常见溶剂，以增强PCL和凝胶在电纺丝溶液中的混溶性。研究了ZnO-NPs在复合膜的理化，力学和体外生物学特性中的作用。复合膜表现出足够的机械性能，可提供令人满意的临床操作和对缺损部位的出色顺应性，而其降解速率似乎适合于成功再生牙周缺损。随着时间的推移，复合膜中ZnO-NPs的存在显着降低了金黄色葡萄球菌的浮游生物膜和生物膜的生长。最后，暴露于含有1％和3％（重量）的ZnO-NPs的复合膜的人成骨细胞和人牙龈成纤维细胞的生存能力表明，在GTR治疗期间，预期这些膜不会对牙周细胞重新填充缺损部位的能力产生负面影响。