Manuka honey is a well-known natural material from New Zealand, considered to have properties beneficial for burn treatment. Gels created from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended with natural polymers are potential burn-care dressings, combining biocompatibility with high fluid uptake. Controlled release of manuka honey from such materials is a possible strategy for improving burn healing. This work aimed to produce polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA–sodium carboxymethylcellulose (PVA-CMC), PVA–gelatin (PVA-G), and PVA–starch (PVA-S) cryogels infused with honey and to characterize these materials physicochemically, morphologically, and thermally, followed by in vitro analysis of swelling capacity, degradation/weight loss, honey delivery kinetics, and possible activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The addition of honey to PVA led to many PVA crystals with defects, while PVA–starch–honey and PVA–sodium carboxymethylcellulose–honey (PVA-CMC-H) formed amorphous gels. PVA-CMC presented the highest swelling degree of all. PVA-CMC-H and PVA–gelatin–honey presented the highest swelling capacities of the honey-laden samples. Weight loss/degradation was significantly higher for samples containing honey. Layers submitted to more freeze–thawing cycles were less porous in SEM images. With the honey concentration used, samples did not inhibit S. aureus, but pure manuka honey was bactericidal and dilutions superior to 25% honey were bacteriostatic, indicating the need for higher concentrations to be more effective.
According to the present findings, it can be concluded that the intraurethral administration of LPS promotes tissue remodeling, as well as stimulating the pattern of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and therefore, constitutes an effective experimental model of BPH/inflammation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.