Title: Biosynthetic cellulose-based hydrogel for wound management
Summary
Wound healing is a complex physiological
process following several biochemical events. The basic tenets of wound
management involve creating and maintaining optimum condition to facilitate
healing. Hydrogels are moist and responsive and can therefore be very effective
in this healing process. Hydrogels have attracted a great deal of interest as
an advanced wound dressing. They can be synthesised from wide range of
synthetic and natural polymers.
In this research, based on a concept of moist
wound healing proposed by Winter in 1962, such a hydrogel of cellulose-based
biomaterial was produced using bacterial strain of Gluconoacetobacter xylinus. After production, various physiochemical
characterisation tests were performed to assess the suitability of this
bacterial cellulose (BC) as a hydrogel dressing. The BC biosynthetic material
was purified to make it free from biogenic
molecules and make it chemically pure. Produced BC contained over 95 %
of water. Hight moisture content provides a moist microclimate at the wound
bed, facilitating wound healing. Furthermore, high moisture content offers BC a
soft and malleable texture which resembles skin. Also, this feature imparts it
a property of delivering soothing effect and pain free removal from the wound
site without traumatising the granulation tissue. In addition, morphological
studies by SEM revealed three-dimensional crosslinked nanofibrillar network
structure which may provide barrier against infections and enables loading of
healing agents. In the current study, different healing agents were
successfully loaded in BC network structure for wound management
applications. Produced BC demonstrated
transparent nature which may allow for clinical assessment of healing process
without the need for removal of these potential dressings from the wound site.
BC hydrogel also exhibits excellent cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility. Overall,
produced bacterial cellulose hydrogel could be a good alternative to current
wound dressings and has potential in the treatment of wound infection, when
loaded with antimicrobial and/or healing agents.