Bacterial cellulose based gel of glycyrrhizic acid gel for atopic dermatitis: Design, optimization, in vitro and in vivo investigation.

It has been evidenced that water retention effect is very important in the treatment of eczema and one carrier of medicines, bacterial cellulose is accordance with the demand. However, this carrier is seldomly used as the carrier of medicines due to its inertia structure unless modified. As glycyrrhizic acid is a naturally amphiphilic and triterpenoid compound with anti-inflammatory effects and is a potential compound for treating eczema and it is naturally amphiphilic, a characteristic that may make bacterial cellulose one suitable carrier of the glycyrrhizic acid delivery system. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to prepare and evaluate glycyrrhizic acid hydrogels with no-modified bacterial cellulose as the carrier. The bacterial cellulose glycyrrhizic acid hydrogel was prepared by physical crosslinking method, and the formulation was optimized through single factor investigation and orthogonal experiment. The optimized hydrogel was characterized in vitro to evaluate the skin permeability, skin irritation and efficacy on DNCB induced acute eczema in mice. In vitro characterization data supported the formation of hydrogels. GA-BC hydrogel has good skin permeability and no obvious irritation to animal skin. GA-BC hydrogel can significantly promote the recovery of skin lesions and has a certain effect on eczema as compared with GA hydrogel.