Abstract
The current study aimed to fabricate curcumin-loaded bacterial cellulose (BC-Cur) nanocomposite as a potential wound dressing for partial thickness burns by utilizing the therapeutic features of curcumin and unique structural, physico-chemical, and biological features of bacterial cellulose (BC). Characterization analyses confirmed the successful impregnation of curcumin into the BC matrix. Biocompatibility studies showed the better attachment and proliferation of fibroblast cells on the BC-Cur nanocomposite. The antibacterial potential of curcumin was tested against Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium), and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Wound healing analysis of partial-thickness burns in Balbc mice showed an accelerated wound closure up to 64.25% after 15 days in the BC-Cur nanocomposite treated group. Histological studies showed healthy granulation tissues, fine re-epithelialization, vascularization, and resurfacing of wound bed in the BC-Cur nanocomposite group. These results indicate that combining BC with curcumin significantly improved the healing pattern. Thus, it can be concluded that the fabricated biomaterial could provide a base for the development of promising alternatives for the conventional dressing system in treating burns.
Highlights
Skin, as a vital organ, prevents the water loss from the body and keeps the internal environment moist
Bacterial cellulose is aerobically produced as a hydrogel membrane at the air-medium interface in static cultivation, whose thickness increases downward when new fibrils are added, and this process continues until all bacterial cells entrapped in the hydrogel membrane become inactive or die due to oxygen deficit (Shah et al, 2013)
The presence of OH functional groups vows bacterial cellulose (BC) with highly hydrophilic behavior, which results in the expansion of pore size when rehydrated, which facilitates the impregnation of other molecules such as polymer solution and micro- and nano-sized particles; curcumin powder in this case
Summary
As a vital organ, prevents the water loss from the body and keeps the internal environment moist. An ideal 3D scaffold supports the cellular activities for easy adhesion, penetration, growth, proliferation, and differentiation, in addition to being non-toxic, biodegradable, mechanically stable, and permeable to diffusion of nutrients and oxygen flow (Hu et al, 2014; Douglass et al, 2018). These features bring forward three basic requirements for a wound dressing material: scaffold, bioactive entity, and active cells, in order to mimic the 3D architecture of ECM of native tissues (Oliveira Barud et al, 2015). A variety of dressing systems have been designed in the past decades for efficient healing of dermal wounds, which are mainly comprised of different polymers and a variety of natural products
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