Collagen-silica bio-composite enriched with Cynodon dactylon extract for tissue repair and regeneration.

Development of biomaterials for tissue engineering applications is of great interest to meet the demand of different clinical requirements. The wound heal dressing biomaterials should necessarily contain well-defined therapeutic components and desirable physical, chemical and biological properties to support optimal delivery of therapeutics at the site of the wound. In this study, we developed collagen-silica wound heal scaffold incorporated with the extract of Cynodon dactylon, characterized and evaluated for its wound heal potential in vitro and in vivo against collagen (Col) and Collagen-silica (CS) scaffolds that served as controls. The prepared Collagen-Silica-Cynodon extract (CSCE) scaffold exhibits porous morphology with preferable biophysical, chemical, mechanical and mass transfer properties besides its controlled biodegradation at the wound site. Stability of CSCE was found to be better than that of native collagen due to intermolecular interactions between collagen and constituents of C. dactylon as confirmed by FTIR analysis. Notably, in vitro biocompatibility assay using DAPI and Rhodamine 123 staining demonstrated that the proliferation of NIH3T3 fibroblast cells was better for CSCE when compared to the Col and CS scaffolds. In vivo wound healing experiments with full-thickness excision wounds in wistar rat model demonstrated that the wounds treated with CSCE showed accelerated healing with enhanced collagen deposition when compared to wounds treated with Col and CS scaffolds, and these studies substantiated the efficacy of CSCE scaffold for treating wounds.