Development of bacterial cellulose wound dressings with controlled delivery of vitamin D3

Abstract

[Excerpt] Wounds, in particular traumatic (e.g. burns) and chronic ones, are a major cause of morbidity and impaired life quality. They often result in long hospitalization stays, taking up substantial health resources in developed countries. This proposal aims at developing a safe, easy-to-use and nonexpensive approach to efficiently address this problem, by attaining faster and proper wound healing. Recent studies showed that an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), LLKKK18, released from conjugates with dextrin embedded in a Carbopol hydrogel significantly improved burn wound healing. In addition to antimicrobial activity, this peptide stimulates vascularization, thus supporting a faster healing and tissue regeneration[1]. As such, one can hypothesize that a hydrogel comprising drugs that stimulate the expression of LL37 will improve wound healing while keeping the wound area infection-free. This work comprised the approach towards the development of a novel bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) dressing. BNC, already used clinically for the treatment of burn wounds due to the unique properties like high water holding capacity, high crystallinity, ultrafine fiber network, high resistance, high moldability and biocompatibility[2]. In this work BNC will be used as drug carriers for the controlled release of drugs, namely of vitamin D3, an inducer of an endogenous expression of AMP LL37, known for accelerating the wound healing process, and as a protective barrier against exogenous agents (dust, microorganism) that can impair wound healing. [...]