Gellan gum hydrogel nanocomposites reinforced by polyurethane nanomicelles with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties as wound dressing

IntroductionSkin generally needs to be covered with a suitable dressing immediately after it is damaged. Hydrogel dressings are preferred over other dressing materials because they can avoid the secondary damage when dressing changed. However, the majority of hydrogels cannot provide sufficient mechanical properties at the applied area.MethodsIn this work, an antibacterial and biodegradable nanocomposite hydrogels (NCHs) dressing is developed based on methacrylated gellan integrated with polyurethane soft nanoparticles for drug delivery and wound healing. A series of NCHs was synthesized by the incorporation of cationic and anionic PUNs with weight ratio 30 w/w % into the MGG solution. The chemical structure, morphology, mechanical properties, stimuli-responsivity, drug delivery efficiency, antibacterial properties and cytotoxicity of synthesized NCHs were investigated.ResultsAll prepared NCHs samples showed higher compressive properties than neat MGG hydrogels. NCH containing anionic nanoparticle exhibited higher water absorption and bigger pore size and greater bacterial inhibition zone compared to cationic NCHs. In another hand, hydrogel containing cationic nanoparticle showed slower drug delivery in neutral and acid pH compared to anionic analog. Finally, it is worth mentioning that all NCHs showed no significant toxicity to human dermal fibroblast cells (HDFs) which idealized them as the suitable hydrogels for wound dressing applications.

کلیدواژه ها:

Gellan gum ، Polyurethane ، Hydrogel ، Antibacterial ، Drug delivery ، Wound dressing