Synergistic amalgamation of shellac with self-antibacterial hydroxyapatite and carboxymethyl cellulose: An interactive wound dressing for ensuring safety and efficacy in preliminary in vivo studies.

This study focuses on the synergistic formulation of environmentally friendly blended materials based on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) for advanced interactive wound dressing. New CMC hydrogels were prepared with two degrees of functionalization and chemically crosslinked with citric acid (CA) to fine-tune their properties. Additionally, CMC-based hybrids were created by blending with shellac (SHL) and incorporating self-antibacterial hydroxyapatite (HA) to inhibit bacterial growth and promote wound healing. The results demonstrate the successful production of superabsorbent hydrogels with typical swelling degrees ranging from 81% in water to 82% in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). These hydrogels exhibit distinct morphological features and remarkable improvements in surface mechanical properties, specifically in their tensile properties, which show a significant increase from approximately 0.03 to 2.2 N/mm2 due to the formation of CMC-SHL-HA hybrid nanostructures. Furthermore, the cytocompatibility of these CMC-based hydrogels was investigated by assessing the in vitro cell viability responses of human skin fibroblasts. The results reveal the cell viability responses over 91%, indicating their biocompatibility with human cells. Moreover, the characteristics of surgical wounds were assessed before and after the application of the hydrogel on dogs, and no signs of infection were observed at any of the surgical sites post-surgery.

Enhanced magnetic performance and in-vitro apatite-forming ability of the CoFe2 O4 doped nano-hydroxyapatite porous bioceramics.

In this research, the bioceramics system of nano-hydroxyapatite-cobalt ferrite or Ca10 (PO4)6 (OH)2 /xCoFe2 O4 (HAP/xCF), where x = 0-3 vol%, were studied. The effect of CF concentration on phase evolution, physical, microstructure, mechanical, and magnetic properties as well as the in-vitro apatite-forming ability and cell culture analysis of the HAP ceramic was investigated. XRD revealed that all HAP/xCF ceramics showed high purity of hydroxyapatite with calcium and phosphate. However, the peak of the CF phase is noted for the HAP + 3 vol% CF ceramic. The densification and mechanical properties (HV, HK, σc , and σf ) decreased with increasing the CF additive, which correlated to all HAP/xCF ceramics exhibited porous structure with increasing the percentage of porosity. The average grain size also increased with increasing the CF content. An improvement of magnetic behavior, which increasing of the Mr , Hc , and µB values, was obtained for the higher CF ceramics. In-vitro apatite-forming ability test suggested that the HAP + 3 vol% CF porous ceramic has a good apatite-forming ability. The cell culture analysis indicated that the proliferation of cells was above 97% for the HAP + 3 vol% CF porous ceramic, which means that the prepared ceramic is biocompatible. Based on the obtained results indicated that these ceramics are promising biomedical application candidates. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We fabricated the HAP/xCF ceramics by a simple solid-state reaction method. The addition of CF into HAP exhibited magnetic improvement and produced the porous ceramic, which caused good apatite-forming ability. The cell culture analysis indicated that the HAP + 3 vol% CF ceramic is biocompatible.

Effects of NiO nanoparticles on the magnetic properties and diffuse phase transition of BZT/NiO composites.

A new composite system, Ba(Zr0.07Ti0.93)O3 (BZT93) ceramic/NiO nanoparticles, was fabricated to investigate the effect of NiO nanoparticles on the properties of these composites. M-H hysteresis loops showed an improvement in the magnetic behavior for higher NiO content samples plus modified ferroelectric properties. However, the 1 vol.% samples showed the optimum ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties. Examination of the dielectric spectra showed that the NiO additive promoted a diffuse phase transition, and the two phase transition temperatures, as observed for BZT93, merged into a single phase transition temperature for the composite samples.