Textile engineering can offer a multi-scale toolbox via various fiber or textile fabrication methods to obtain woven or nonwoven aerogels with different structural and mechanical properties to overcome the current limitations of polysaccharide-based aerogels, such as poor mechanical properties and undeveloped shaping techniques. Hereby, a high viscous solution of microcrystalline cellulose and zinc chloride hydrate was wet spun to produce mono and multi-filament alcogel microfibers. Subsequently, cellulose aerogel fibers (CAF) were produced and impregnated with model drugs using supercritical CO2 processes. Fibers were characterized in terms of morphology and textural properties, thermal stability, mechanical properties, and in vitro biological and drug release assessments. Loaded and non-loaded CAFs proved to have a macro-porous outer shell and a nano-porous inner core with interconnected pore structure and a specific area in the range of 100-180 m2/g. The CAFs with larger diameter (d ~ 235 μm) were able to form knitted mesh while lower diameter fibers (d ~ 70 μm) formed needle punched nonwoven textiles. Humidity and water uptake assessments indicated that the fibrous structures were highly moisture absorbable and non-toxic with immediate drug release profiles due to the highly open interconnected porous structure of the fibers. Finally, CAFs are propitious to be further developed for biomedical applications such as drug delivery and wound care.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is characterised by the weakening of the pelvic floor support tissues, and often by subsequent prolapse of the bladder outside the body, i.e. cystocele. The bladder is kept in place by the anterior vaginal wall which consists of a dense extracellular matrix rich in collagen content that is maintained and remodelled by fibroblastic cells, i.e. fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. Since altered matrix production influences tissue quality, and myofibroblasts are involved in normal and pathological soft tissue repair processes, we evaluated matrix production of cells derived from pre- and post-menopausal POP and non-POP control anterior vaginal wall tissues. Results showed that cells from postmenopausal POP women deposited matrices with high percentage of collagen fibres with less anisotropic orientation and increased stiffness than those produced by controls. There was a transient increase in myofibroblastic phenotype that was lost after the peak of tissue remodelling. In conclusion, affected fibroblasts from postmenopausal prolapsed tissues produced altered matrices in vitro compared to controls. Such aberrant altered matrix production does not appear to be a consequence of abnormal phenotypical changes towards the myofibroblastic lineage.

Drug‐eluting medical textiles have recently gained great attention to be used in different applications due to their cost effectiveness and unique physical and chemical properties. Using various fiber production and textile fabrication technologies, fibrous constructs with the required properties for the target drug delivery systems can be designed and fabricated. This review summarizes the current advances in the fabrication of drug‐eluting medical textiles. Different fiber production methods such as melt‐, wet‐, and electro‐spinning, and textile fabrication techniques such as knitting and weaving are explained. Moreover, various loading processes of bioactive agents to obtain drug‐loaded fibrous structures with required physicochemical and morphological properties, drug delivery mechanisms, and drug release kinetics are discussed. Finally, the current applications of drug‐eluting fibrous systems in wound care, tissue engineering, and transdermal drug delivery are highlighted.