Superabsorbent crosslinked bacterial cellulose biomaterials for chronic wound dressings
In this work, we present novel ex situ modification of bacterial cellulose (BC) polymer, that significantly improves its ability to absorb water after drying. The method involves a single inexpensive and easy-to-perform process of BC crosslinking, using citric acid along with catalysts, such as disodium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate or their mixtures. In particular, the mixture of disodium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate was the most promising, yielding significantly greater water capacity (over 5 times higher as compared to the unmodified BC) and slower water release (over 6 times as compared to the unmodified BC). Further, our optimized crosslinked BC had over 1.5x higher water capacity than modern commercial dressings dedicated to highly exuding wounds, while exhibiting no cytotoxic effects against fibroblast cell line L929 in vitro. Therefore, our novel BC biomaterial may find application in super-absorbent dressings, designed for chronic wounds with imbalanced moisture level.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.AbbreviationsBCbacterial celluloseCATcatalystCAcitric acidM1modification with disodium phosphate as a catalyst (CAT)M2modification with sodium bicarbonate as a CATM3modification with mixture of disodium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate in the ratio 1:1 as a CATM4modification with ammonium bicarbonate as a CATM5modification with disodium phosphate and ammonium bicarbonate in the ratio 1:1 as a CATM6modification with sodium bicarbonate and ammonium bicarbonate in the ratio 1:1 as a CATM7modification with sodium hypophosphite as a CATSHPsodium hypophosphiteSRswelling ratioWHCwater holding capacityWPGweight percent gain.View Full Text