Abstract
Even though antibiotic treatment remains one of the most common tools to handle bacterial infections, the excessive antibiotic concentration at the target site may lead to undesired effects. Aiming at the fabrication of antibiotic-free biomaterials for antibacterial applications, in this work, we propose the synthesis of gallium (III)—chitosan (Ga (III)-CS) complexes with six different gallium concentrations via an in situ precipitation method. Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy indicated the chelation of chitosan with Ga (III) by peak shifts and changes in the relative absorbance of key spectral bands, while energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated the homogenous distribution of the metal ions within the polymer matrix. Additionally, similar to CS, all Ga (III)-CS complexes showed hydrophobic behavior during static contact-angle measurements. The antibacterial property of the complexes against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria was positively correlated with the Ga (III) concentration. Moreover, cell studies confirmed the nontoxic behavior of the complexes against the human osteosarcoma cell line (MG-63 cells) and mouse embryonic fibroblasts cell line (MEFs). Based on the results of this study, new antibiotic-free antibacterial biomaterials based on Ga (III)-CS can be developed, expanding the scope of CS applications in the biomedical field.
Highlights
Accepted: 8 October 2021Infectious diseases represent devastating complications of implantation surgery, which could be associated with any biomaterial, regardless of type, form, function, or contact duration with human tissue [1,2]
We present for the first time a versatile and reproducible way to synthesize Ga (III)-CS complexes with intrinsic antibacterial properties and suitable biocompatibility
Even though the addition of gallium ions did not cause any qualitative changes in the microstructure of the samples, high magnification images showed an increase in roughness with a higher Ga amount (Figure 1B,E,I)
Summary
Infectious diseases represent devastating complications of implantation surgery, which could be associated with any biomaterial, regardless of type, form, function, or contact duration with human tissue [1,2]. The entrapment of specific antimicrobial ions (Cu (II), Zn (II), Fe (II), Zr (IV), or Ag (I)) in the CS matrix is frequently applied to improve the antibacterial properties of materials, mainly for high-tech wrapping applications [14,15,16]. Metals, such as Cu, Zn, or Ag, can be problematic due to their ability to accumulate in the food chain or vital organs in the human body [17]. We anticipate that the promising results of this study will encourage in future the implementation of Ga (III)-CS complex in biomedical devices, such as functional coatings for implants [27], wound dressing, or as tissue engineering scaffolds
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