Borrowing From Nature: Biopolymers and Biocomposites as Smart Wound Care Materials

Abstract

Wound repair is a complex and tightly regulated physiological process, involving the activation of various cell types throughout each subsequent step (homeostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling). Any impairment within the correct sequence of the healing events could lead to chronic wounds, with potential effects on the patience quality of life, and consequent fallouts on the wound care management. Nature itself can be of inspiration for the development of fully biodegradable materials, presenting enhanced bioactive potentialities, and sustainability. Naturally-derived biopolymers are nowadays considered smart materials. They provide a versatile and tunable platform to design the appropriate extracellular matrix able to support tissue regeneration, while contrasting the onset of adverse events. In the past decades, fabrication of bioactive materials based on natural polymers, either of protein derivation or polysaccharide-based, has been extensively exploited to tackle wound-healing related problematics. However, in today's World the exclusive use of such materials is becoming an urgent challenge, to meet the demand of environmentally sustainable technologies to support our future needs, including applications in the fields of healthcare and wound management. In the following, we will briefly introduce the main physico-chemical and biological properties of some protein-based biopolymers and some naturally-derived polysaccharides. Moreover, we will present some of the recent technological processing and green fabrication approaches of novel composite materials based on these biopolymers, with particular attention on their applications in the skin tissue repair field. Lastly, we will highlight promising future perspectives for the development of a new generation of environmentally-friendly, naturally-derived, smart wound dressings.

Influence of carbon source complexity on porosity, water retention and extracellular matrix composition ofNeurospora discretabiofilms

“…Based on these results, carbon source can be used as a process lever to tune the porosity and composition of the biofilms, which would also have a direct bearing on the mechanical properties. These biofilms are natural, biodegradable and sustainable materials that can find applications as membranes for wastewater treatment (Shukla et al ; Quilès et al ), and wound care materials (Smith et al ; Suarato et al ), which require flexible ‘housing’ and a highly porous structures for exchange of fluids.…”

“…These biofilms are natural, biodegradable and sustainable materials that can find applications as membranes for wastewater treatment (Shukla et al 2014;Quil es et al 2016), and wound care materials (Smith et al 2016;Suarato et al 2018), which require flexible 'housing' and a highly porous structures for exchange of fluids.…”

From Dermal Patch to Implants—Applications of Biocomposites in Living Tissues

“…Synthetic polymers, for example, lack high cell affinity but display good mechanical properties. Natural polymers, on the other hand, are biocompatible and biodegradable but often present poor mechanical strength and limited shelf-life [53]. Considering these parameters, Anjum et al [54] developed a nanofiber scaffold composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin, as illustrated in Figure 4a.…”

Silk Fibroin in Effective Wound Dressing: An Overview.

“…Skin repair is a complex multistep process having involvement of a series of biochemical process. To design an appropriate wound dressing, thorough knowledge of these steps are extremely crucial [1,10,3]. The healing process consists of the following, overlapping stages; homeostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling [1,3,11].…”

“…Human skin acts as an external defense system shielding our inner structures from external harsh environment as well as from several microorganisms. In human, adult skin is composed of three layers; epidermis or stratum corneum consisting of keratinocytes, dermis (collagen rich connective tissue) and hypodermis or fat tissue rich subcutaneous layer providing thermal isolation and mechanical protection to the body [1][2][3][4]. Wound is a type of injury which happens relatively quickly where skin is torn, cut, or punctured (an open wound), or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion (a closed wound).…”