Wound Dressing Materials

Recent studies in wound dressing applications offer new therapies and promote wound healing process. The aim of this study was to develop Hypericum perforatum (St John's Wort) oil incorporated chitosan films for wound dressing applications. H. perforatum oil as a potential therapeutic agent was encapsulated in chitosan film to achieve a better wound dressing material. Oil incorporated chitosan films were successfully prepared by solvent casting method in different oil concentrations (0.25–1.5%v/v). Water vapor permeability (WVP), mechanical test, swelling behavior and surface hydrophobicity were performed in order to characterize the prepared films. Antimicrobial test was performed by disc diffusion method and the growth inhibition effects of the films including different amount of H. perforatum oil were investigated on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. WVP increased with oil incorporation and the highest value was obtained for 0.25% oil concentration.The highest strain value was obtained in 0.25% oil content films although tensile stress decreased with increasing oil content. H. perforatum oil incorporated films had antimicrobial effect on both microorganisms. Chitosan based films had no cytotoxic effects on NIH3T3fibroblast cells and provided a good surface for cell attachment and proliferation. The results showed that the H. perforatum incorporated chitosan films seems to be a potential and novel biomaterial for wound healing applications.

Barrier property of materials to microbes is an important aspect in many applications like wound dressings and skin substitutes. Lack of a standard method for the evaluation of microbial barrier property limits the consideration of this important aspect by many bioengineers and biomaterial scientists. Thus, in this study we are intended to develop a standard method for the quantitative assessment of Microbial Barrier Property (MBP) and express this in terms of percentage in comparison with a control which resembles a bare wound or a standard existing wound coverage material. In this study, we have evaluated the microbial barrier property of electrospun materials with different pore spaces and our study showed that this method can be successfully used for the assessment of bacterial barrier property of materials intended for wound dressing and skin substitute applications. Further, the results showed that the MBP will vary with the test conditions. This methodology can be used to measure the microbial barrier property of wide range of materials like skin substitute materials, wound dressings, medical textiles and many other materials where microbial prevention is important. This methodology can also be extended to the specific determination of bacterial, fungal or viral barrier property with minor modifications.