Development and characterisation of biosynthetic hydrogels for wound management applications
Authors
Gupta, AbhishekAdvisors
Radecka, IzaGibson, Hazel
Kowalczuk, Marek
Issue Date
2020-04
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Wounds that remain in the inflammatory phase for a prolonged period of time are likely to be colonised and infected by a range of commensal and pathogenic microorganisms. Treatment associated with these types of wounds mainly focuses on controlling infection and providing an optimum environment capable of facilitating re-epithelialisation, thus promoting wound healing. Hydrogels have attracted vast interest as moist wound-responsive dressing materials. Hydrogels facilitate wound healing due to unique properties and 3D network structures which allows encapsulation of healing agents. In the current study, biosynthetic bacterial cellulose hydrogels synthesised by Gluconacetobacter xylinus (ATCC 23770) and subsequently loaded with antimicrobial healing agents, were characterised for their wound healing properties. Loading parameters were optimised based on experimental findings. Natural bioactive materials with wound healing properties such as curcumin are attracting interest due to the emergence of resistant bacterial strains. The hydrophobicity of curcumin has been counteracted by using solubility enhancing cyclodextrins. In this study, water soluble curcumin:hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin supramolecular inclusion complex was produced by a solvent evaporation method. The ratios of solvents to solubilise curcumin and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin were tested for the production of the inclusion complex with optimum encapsulation efficacy. The results confirmed that hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin enhanced the aqueous solubility of curcumin and allowed loading into bacterial cellulose to produce antimicrobial hydrogels. Silver is a broad spectrum natural antimicrobial agent with wide applications extending to proprietary wound dressings. Based on the broad spectrum antimicrobial properties of silver, silver nitrate-loaded and silver zeolite-loaded bacterial cellulose hydrogels were produced. Recently silver nanoparticles have also attracted attention in wound management. A novel green synthesis of nanoparticles was accomplished in this study using a natural reducing agent, curcumin which is a natural polyphenolic compound, well known as a wound healing agent. In addition to physicochemical properties, these hydrogels were characterised (in vitro) for wound management applications. The results indicate that both silver nitrate and silver zeolite-loaded biosynthetic hydrogels possess antimicrobial activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Furthermore, the curcumin:hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin-loaded bacterial cellulose hydrogels possess unique properties including haemocompatability, cytocompatability, anti-staphylococcal and antioxidant abilities. In addition to high cytocompatibility, curcumin reduced silver nanoparticles-loaded bacterial cellulose hydrogels dressings exhibited antimicrobial activity against representative wound infecting pathogenic microbes Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. In conclusion, the results presented support the potential use of all the investigated bacterial cellulose hydrogels for wound management applications as dressings.Publisher
University of WolverhamptonType
Thesis or dissertationLanguage
enDescription
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Collections
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