Novel Drug Delivery Systems Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Biomed Mater. 2019 Mar 7;14(3):035003. doi: 10.1088/1748-605X/ab026c.
In recent years, applications of biopolymers such as hyaluronic acid (HA) for wound dressing have attracted more attention. However, the poor mechanical properties of HA-based wound dressings limit their clinical applications. Incorporation of reinforcing agents such as nanocrystalline cellulose (CNC) in HA-based wound dressings can improve their mechanical properties. In addition, controlled delivery of growth factors to the wound site using nanoparticles can significantly improve the healing process. In this study, we focus on development and characterization of a novel CNC reinforced HA-based composite containing chitosan nanoparticles loaded with GM-CSF (CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs composite) as an effective wound dressing. CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs composite showed some physicochemical characteristics such as appropriate mechanical properties, high swelling capacity (swelling ratio: 2622.1% ± 35.2%) and controlled release of GM-CSF up to 48 h which make it an excellent candidate for wound dressing. In vivo investigation showed that, after 13 d, the wounds covered with CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs composite could reach to nearly full wound closure and complete re-epithelialization compared to the normal saline treated wounds which exhibited nearly 70% of wound size reduction. Furthermore, the CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs composite treated wounds exhibited significantly lower inflammatory reaction, enhanced re-epithelialization and improved granulation tissue formation compared with CNC-HA/Chi-NPs composite treated wound; it might be due to positive effects of GM-CSF on the wound healing process. Our results suggest that CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs composite can be potentially applied in clinical practice for wound treatment.
近年来，透明质酸（HA）等生物聚合物在伤口敷料中的应用引起了更多关注。然而，基于 HA 的伤口敷料的机械性能较差限制了其临床应用。在基于 HA 的伤口敷料中加入纳米纤维素（CNC）等增强剂可以改善其机械性能。此外，使用纳米颗粒控制生长因子递送到伤口部位可以显著改善愈合过程。在这项研究中，我们专注于开发和表征一种新型的含有壳聚糖纳米颗粒负载 GM-CSF 的 CNC 增强 HA 基复合材料（CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs 复合材料）作为有效的伤口敷料。CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs 复合材料表现出一些物理化学特性，如适当的机械性能、高溶胀能力（溶胀比：2622.1%±35.2%）和 GM-CSF 的控释长达 48 小时，这使其成为一种优秀的伤口敷料候选物。体内研究表明，在 13 天后，用 CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs 复合材料覆盖的伤口可以达到几乎完全的伤口闭合和完全的上皮化，而生理盐水处理的伤口仅减少了近 70%的伤口面积。此外，与 CNC-HA/Chi-NPs 复合材料处理的伤口相比，CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs 复合材料处理的伤口表现出明显较低的炎症反应、增强的上皮化和改善的肉芽组织形成；这可能是由于 GM-CSF 对伤口愈合过程的积极影响。我们的结果表明，CNC-HA/GM-CSF-Chi-NPs 复合材料有望在临床实践中应用于伤口治疗。
