| Resumo: | Aerogels are very interesting materials with high porosity whose wound healing applications are arousing great interest. In particular, aerogels produced from marine polymers are of particular interest due to their attractive properties such as the antimicrobial activity of chitosan or the capacity to provide a moist environment of alginate. The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential for wound healing applications of alginate-chitosan aerogels in the form of fibres. To produce the fibres, a polyelectrolyte complex hydrogel of both polymers was made by the emulsion-gelation method. Through solvent exchange an alcogel was obtained which was then dried with supercritical CO2. Once the fibres were produced, the characterization of its solid state, biocompatibility, cell migration stimulation and antimicrobial activity were carried out. To characterize the solid state, determination of the fibre’s chitosan content was first performed. Then, the morphology, its textural properties and the ionic interaction between both polymers was also analysed. Fibres biocompatibility and stimulation of cell migration were evaluated by two in vitro methods, the direct contact method described in ISO 10993-5 and the scratch assay, respectively, using in both methods the mouse fibroblast NCTC clone 929 cell line. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae by two standard methods (dynamic and static) described in ASTM E 2149-01 and in ISO 20743:2013, respectively. In this work, the influence of chitosan’s molecular weight and content on the fibre characteristics was also evaluated. In addition, in order to compare with a consumer product already on the market, cell and antibacterial assays were also performed for a dry calcium-sodium alginate wound dressing. The obtained results suggest that these alginate-chitosan aerogel fibres are good candidates for wound healing applications.
|
|---|