Acceleration of the healing process of full-thickness wounds using hydrophilic chitosan–silica hybrid sponge in a porcine model

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated the surface characterization of a novel chitosan-silica hybridized membrane and highlighted the substantial role of silica in the wound environment. The chemical coupling of chitosan and silica resulted in a more condensed network compared with pure chitosan, which was eventually able to stably maintain its framework, particularly in the wet state. In addition, we closely observed the wound-healing process along with the surface interaction between chitosan-silica and the wound site using large-surface-area wounds in a porcine model. Our evidence indicates that chitosan-silica exerts a synergetic effect of both materials to promote a remarkable wound-healing process. In particular, the silica in chitosan-silica accelerated wound closure including wound contraction, and re-epithelialization via enhancement of cell recruitment, epidermal maturity, neovascularization, and granulation tissue formation compared with pure chitosan and other commercial dressing materials. This advanced wound dressing material may lead to effective treatment for problematic cutaneous wounds and can be further applied for human skin regeneration.

Improving Fibrin Hydrogels’ Mechanical Properties, through Addition of Silica or Chitosan-Silica Materials, for Potential Application as Wound Dressings

“…Finally, fibrin mechanical reinforcement was more homogeneous with the lowest evaluated S concentration, as indicated by the smaller variation of Young's elastic modulus (Figure 4(a)). Interestingly, a similar 2-fold modulus increase was achieved with the hydrogel prepared in the presence of 0.7 mg/mL CS6 material (Figure 4(b)) compared to the increase obtained with 4 mg/mL of S. At the first glance, both CS and S are hydrophilic materials that can contribute to the maintenance of fibrin hydrogel hydration, as shown in the literature for other hydrogels [25,41,42]. However, the increase of the CS6 concentration was not advantageous for the mechanical reinforcement (Figure 4(b)).…”

Novel Chitosan-Silica Hybrid Hydrogels for Cell Encapsulation and Drug Delivery

“…Organic with inorganic crosslinkers such as GPTMS can be employed to overcome uncontrolled degradation. So far, several studies have reported the synthesis of organicinorganic hybrids using chitosan as the organic source [52][53][54][55][56]. Thiolated chitosan offers advantageous features over unmodified chitosan including significantly improved permeation and mucoadhesive properties arising from thiol groups present on side chains.…”

Silica/Protein and Silica/Polysaccharide Interactions and Their Contributions to the Functional Properties of Derived Hybrid Wound Dressing Hydrogels

“…The TMOS silanol groups (pKa > 5.6) interact with the amine (pKa = 6.3–6.5) and hydroxyl groups of this polysaccharide through electrostatic and Van der Waals/hydrogen bonds interactions during the gel formation ( Figure 3(a) ), as demonstrated for similar systems at neutral pH [ 44 ]. These interactions can reduce the polymer mobility, which explains why silica reinforces the gel, helping to maintain the foam structure after adsorption of larger wound exudate volumes compared with the pure chitosan gel [ 43 , 45 ]. This water adsorption capability and faster wettability are induced by the silica surface hydrophilicity, which is also important for cell viability.…”