Potentiation of Bioactivity in Keratin and Probiotic Wound Healing Composite Hydrogels

Abstract

Challenges of antimicrobial resistance by pathogens, cellular toxicity, and allergic reactions to conventional wound healing therapies, constitute major drawbacks in wound management. It has, therefore, become imperative to expand the search for biomaterials that possess promising wound-healing properties. Among the therapeutic attributes of probiotics are antimicrobial and tissue regeneration potentials. On the other hand, keratin, a biopolymer, is also known to support tissue regeneration, thereby facilitating wound healing. It has been shown to possess a measurable degree of antimicrobial properties. The combination of keratin and a probiotic in a wound-healing formulation should expectedly potentiate each other in their antimicrobial and tissue regeneration potentials. In the present study, keratin in chicken feather was extracted by alkaline hydrolysis. Hydrogels were prepared with combinations of the keratin and a probiotic (Lactobacillus acidophilus) at two levels of bioload (1 x 108 CFU/ml and 2 x 108 CFU/ml). The probiotic-loaded-keratin-based hydrogels were subjected to ex vivo tests for wound-healing efficacy and control of multi-drug resistant wound pathogens.