An Overview of Cellulose Derivatives-Based Dressings for Wound-Healing Management

Abstract

Presently, notwithstanding the progress regarding wound-healing management, the treatment of the majority of skin lesions still represents a serious challenge for biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Thus, the attention of the researchers has turned to the development of novel materials based on cellulose derivatives. Cellulose derivatives are semi-synthetic biopolymers, which exhibit high solubility in water and represent an advantageous alternative to water-insoluble cellulose. These biopolymers possess excellent properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, sustainability, non-toxicity, non-immunogenicity, thermo-gelling behavior, mechanical strength, abundance, low costs, antibacterial effect, and high hydrophilicity. They have an efficient ability to absorb and retain a large quantity of wound exudates in the interstitial sites of their networks and can maintain optimal local moisture. Cellulose derivatives also represent a proper scaffold to incorporate various bioactive agents with beneficial therapeutic effects on skin tissue restoration. Due to these suitable and versatile characteristics, cellulose derivatives are attractive and captivating materials for wound-healing applications. This review presents an extensive overview of recent research regarding promising cellulose derivatives-based materials for the development of multiple biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, such as wound dressings, drug delivery devices, and tissue engineering.

Bacterial Cellulose—A Remarkable Polymer as a Source for Biomaterials Tailoring

“…As it is well known, a polymer is composed of repetitive similar/non-similar entities, called monomers, which connect through non-covalent bonds, generating the polymolecular entities [ 112 ]. A brief classification of the most widespread polymers includes cellulose, collagen, chitosan, and hyaluronic acid as natural polymers [ 113 ]; cellulose derivatives (sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC), hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC), hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), methylcellulose (MC), and ethylcellulose (EC)) as modified natural polymers obtained by modifying the pure cellulose through the etherification reaction with alkyl groups [ 114 ]; and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and Carbopol ® as synthetic polymers [ 115 ].…”

An Up-to-Date Review of Biomaterials Application in Wound Management

“…A wound can be defined as damage in the skin structure and function caused by external (e.g., physical, mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical) factors or underlying medical or physiological disorders (e.g., diabetes, malignancies) [ 21 ]. Different attributes can characterize a wound, counting blood flow, oxygen, inflammation, edema, infection, wound metabolism, nutrition, innervation, repetitive trauma, previous injury handling, and systemic factors.…”

“…An acute wound can heal completely, with minimum scar formation, without external support, in a healing time ranging from 8 to 12 weeks depending on the affected anatomical parts, size, and depth of the lesion. However, a chronic wound needs a longer time for healing, may reoccur, and display severe tissue scarring, necessitating specialized care [ 21 ]. Table 1 was created to emphasize the differences in the wound healing management of several distinct wounds.…”

Wound Dressing: Combination of Acacia Gum/PVP/Cyclic Dextrin in Bioadhesive Patches Loaded with Grape Seed Extract

“…Hydrophilic polymers, such as polysaccharides [ 5 ], could be considered suitable for this application. In literature, it is described the preparation of films based on polysaccharides such as agarose [ 6 ], alginate [ 7 ], that coming from marine algae [ 8 ], and cellulose [ 9 ].…”