Polysaccharide Fabrication Platforms and Biocompatibility Assessment as Candidate Wound Dressing Materials.

Wound dressings are critical for wound care because they provide a physical barrier between the injury site and outside environment, preventing further damage or infection. Wound dressings also manage and even encourage the wound healing process for proper recovery. Polysaccharide biopolymers are slowly becoming popular as modern wound dressings materials because they are naturally derived, highly abundant, inexpensive, absorbent, non-toxic and non-immunogenic. Polysaccharide biopolymers have also been processed into biomimetic platforms that offer a bioactive component in wound dressings that aid the healing process. This review primarily focuses on the fabrication and biocompatibility assessment of polysaccharide materials. Specifically, fabrication platforms such as electrospun fibers and hydrogels, their fabrication considerations and popular polysaccharides such as chitosan, alginate, and hyaluronic acid among emerging options such as arabinoxylan are discussed. A survey of biocompatibility and bioactive molecule release studies, leveraging polysaccharide's naturally derived properties, is highlighted in the text, while challenges and future directions for wound dressing development using emerging fabrication techniques such as 3D bioprinting are outlined in the conclusion. This paper aims to encourage further investigation and open up new, disruptive avenues for polysaccharides in wound dressing material development.

Fabrication, characterization, and in vitro evaluation of silver-containing arabinoxylan foams as antimicrobial wound dressing.

Arabinoxylan ferulate (AXF) foams were fabricated via enzymatic peroxidase/hydrogen peroxide crosslinking reaction followed by freeze-drying and studied as a potential wound dressing material. The AXF foam's rheological, morphological, porous, and swelling properties were examined. AXF foams were found to be a viscoelastic material that proved to be highly porous and water absorbent. AXF foams possessed low endotoxin levels and were cytocompatible with fibroblasts. Silver was successfully integrated into AXF foams and slowly released over 48 h. AXF foams impregnated with silver demonstrated efficacy inhibiting bacterial growth according to a modified Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility test. Overall, AXF foams possess appropriate material properties and the silver-loaded AXF foams showed antimicrobial activity necessary to be a candidate material in wound dressing development. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2456-2465, 2016.

Electrospinning of PEGylated polyamidoamine dendrimer fibers.

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers have emerged as an important class of nanostructured materials and have found a broad range of applications. There is also an ongoing effort to synthesize higher-complexity structures using PAMAM dendrimers as enabling building blocks. Herein, we report for the first time the fabrication of electrospun nanocomposite fibers composed of dendrimer derivatives, namely PEGylated PAMAM dendrimers, blended with a small amount of high-molecular-weight polyethylene oxide (PEO). Morphological features and mechanical properties of the resulting dendrimer fiber mats were assessed.

Semi-interpenetrating network (sIPN) gelatin nanofiber scaffolds for oral mucosal drug delivery.

The oral mucosa is a promising absorption site for drug administration because it is permeable, highly vascularized and allows for ease of administration. Nanofiber scaffolds for local or systemic drug delivery through the oral mucosa, however, have not been fully explored. In this work, we fabricated electrospun gelatin nanofiber scaffolds for oral mucosal drug delivery. To improve structural stability of the electrospun gelatin scaffolds and allow non-invasive incorporation of therapeutics into the scaffold, we employed photo-reactive polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEG-DA575, 575 gmol(-1)) as a cross-linker to stabilize the scaffold by forming semi-interpenetrating network gelatin nanofiber scaffolds (sIPN NSs), during which cross-linker concentration was varied (1×, 2×, 4× and 8×). The results showed that electrospun gelatin nanofiber scaffolds after being cross-linked with PEG-DA575 (i.e. sIPN NS1×, 2×, 4× and 8×) retained fiber morphology and possessed improved structural stability. A series of structural parameters and properties of the cross-linked electrospun gelatin scaffolds were systematically characterized in terms of morphology, fiber diameter, mechanical properties, porosity, swelling and degradation. Mucin absorption onto sIPN NS4× was also confirmed, indicating this scaffold possessed greatest mucoadhesion properties among those tested. Slow release of nystatin, an anti-fungal reagent, from the sIPN gelatin nanofiber scaffold was demonstrated.