Bacterial Cellulose: Long-Term Biocompatibility Studies

Abstract

The bacterial cellulose (BC) secreted by Gluconacetobacter xylinus is a network of pure cellulose nanofibres which has high crystallinity, wettability and mechanical strength. These characteristics make BC an excellent material for tissue-engineering constructs, noteworthy for artificial vascular grafts. In this work, the in vivo biocompatibility of BC membranes produced by two G. xylinus strains was analyzed through histological analysis of long-term subcutaneous implants in the mice. The BC implants caused a mild and benign inflammatory reaction that decreased along time and did not elicit a foreign body reaction. A tendency to calcify over time, which may be related to the porosity of the BC implants, was observed, especially among the less porous BC-1 implants. In addition, the potential toxicity of BC nanofibres - obtained by chemical-mechanical treatment of BC membranes - subcutaneously implanted in mice was analysed through bone marrow flow cytometry and histological analyses. At 2 and 4 months post-implantation, the nanofibres implants were found to accumulate intracellularly, in subcutaneous foamy macrophages aggregates. Moreover, no differences were observed between the controls and implanted animals in thymocyte populations and in B lymphocyte precursors and myeloid cells in the bone marrow.

Bacterial cellulose as a material for wound treatment: Properties and modifications. A review

“…The potential toxicity of BC has been studied using BC nanofibers obtained by chemical and/or mechanical treatment of BC membranes in in vivo and in vitro experimental setups. Subcutaneous implantation of these BC nanofibers in BALB/c mice did not change the normal development of the animals; no differences were noted in histological analyses of the internal organs between implanted and control animals (Pertile et al, 2011). No toxicity in the liver and kidney organs of SD rats was observed when the rat model was used to study the efficiency of BC wound dressings (Kwak et al, 2015).…”

Apple Derived Cellulose Scaffolds for 3D Mammalian Cell Culture

“…Cellulose has previously been employed as a permeable dialysis membrane and as diffusion limiting membranes within biosensors[24]. As well, previous studies found that cellulose produced by bacteria could support the proliferation of mammalian cells [20], [25], [26]. Synthetically produced cellulose scaffolds have also been employed for 3D mammalian cell culture [2], [19], [21], [23].…”

Novel bilayer bacterial nanocellulose scaffold supports neocartilage formation in vitro and in vivo

“…For such cases, the field of tissue engineering (TE) provides a promising potential alternative therapy to the conventional and complex surgical reconstruction of auricular cartilage by using ear-shaped autologous costal and nasoseptal cartilage [1][2][3]. Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), a novel biomaterial with excellent biocompatibility and remarkable tissue integration capability [4][5][6][7][8], has been evaluated for several TE strategies and has shown to support adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of different cell types [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. BNC is a natural biopolymer synthesized by various bacteria species, particularly Gluconacetobacter xylinus [16,17].…”