Abstract
Suture biomaterials are critical in wound repair by providing support to the healing of different tissues including vascular surgery, hemostasis, and plastic surgery. Important properties of a suture material include physical properties, handling characteristics, and biological response for successful performance. However, bacteria can bind to sutures and become a source of infection. For this reason, there is a need for new biomaterials for suture with antifouling properties. Here we report two types of cellulose fibers from coconut (Cocos nucifera) and sisal (Agave sisalana), which were purified with a chemical method, characterized, and tested in vitro and in vivo. According to SEM images, the cellulose fiber from coconut has a porous surface, and sisal has a uniform structure without internal spaces. It was found that the cellulose fiber from sisal has mechanical properties closer to silk fiber biomaterial using Ultimate Tensile Strength. When evaluating the cellulose fibers biodegradability, the cellulose from coconut showed a rapid weight loss compared to sisal. The antifouling test was negative, which demonstrated that neither possesses intrinsic microbicidal activity. Yet, a weak biofilm was formed on sisal cellulose fibers suggesting it possesses antifouling properties compared to cellulose from coconut. In vivo experiments using healthy mice demonstrated that the scarring and mechanical connection was like silk for both cellulose fibers. Overall, our results showed the potential use of cellulose fibers from vegetal for surgical sutures due to excellent mechanical properties, rapid degradation, and no bacterial adhesion.
Highlights
Sutures are an essential part of wound recovery; they are used to restore topical and sub-dermal wounds after surgery, injury, hurt or mutilation [1]
These results show that the cellulose fibers from different origins were treated with the same chemical process, each fiber had a different surface morphology
We evaluated the mechanical characteristics, biodegradability, biofilm formation test, and demonstrated their use as suture material in an in-situ analysis in the murine model
Summary
Sutures are an essential part of wound recovery; they are used to restore topical and sub-dermal wounds after surgery, injury, hurt or mutilation [1]. Only silk, cotton, and linen fibers are presently commercially available. They are all non-absorbable suture biomaterials [5]. The results showed that vicryl had the highest count of bacteria, and no other suture was significantly different from the others. Nylon sutures were shown to outperform staples and monocryl in terms of avoiding surgical site infection (SSI) during cesarean [8]. They still have not emerged as the consensus material for these applications, and the decision whether to use them rests solely with the attending physician
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