Abstract
Wound healing is a dynamic process that can be seriously delayed by many factors including infectious complications. The development of dressings with intrinsic wound healing activity and/or releasing bioactive compounds may help with addressing such an issue. In this study, hyaluronic acid (HA) at different percentages (1–35%) was used to modify chitosan (CS) biological and physico-chemical properties in order to obtain 2D-matrices able to promote healing and protect from infection. HA incorporation in the CS matrix decreased film transparency and homogeneity, but improved film water uptake and surface wettability. The water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) increased up to a 5% HA content, where it reached the highest value (672 g/m2 day), and decreased for higher HA contents. At all of the tested HA concentrations, HA affected mechanical properties providing matrices more flexible than pure CS with benefit for wound care. Pure CS films permitted S. epidermidis adhesion and biofilm formation. That was not true for CS/HA matrices, where HA at concentrations equal to or greater than 5% was able to avoid S. epidermidis adhesion. Fibroblasts adhesion also took benefit from the HA presence in the film, especially at 5% content, where the best adhesion and proliferation was found.
Highlights
Wound dressings are widely used in clinical practice for standard wound management [1,2] and the performance of a dressing can regulate the success of the healing process
The aim of the present work was to prepare and characterize bi-dimensional chitosan/hyaluronic acid (CS/HA) matrices at high HA contents, ranging from 1% to 35%, in order to investigated if, in these conditions, HA could play the dual role of promoting wound healing and protecting wound from bacterial contamination, avoiding the use of antibacterial agents for preventive purposes
Chitosan and hyaluronic acid were the object of the investigation in this study due to their interesting biological properties
Summary
Wound dressings are widely used in clinical practice for standard wound management [1,2] and the performance of a dressing can regulate the success of the healing process. A number of new material formulations have been proposed in the last decade [3,4], the research in this field is still very active since an ideal material able to meet the various and often specific dressings requirements in relation to the wound type has not yet been developed. In this regard, the main purposes of wound dressings are to provide a temporary physical protection from the external environment, to absorb wound exudates, as well as to confer gas permeability [5]. There is, a clinical demand to develop novel antimicrobial materials [8,9] that, besides physically protecting the wound, could protect from infection
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