The influence of preparation conditions on the characteristics of chitosan‐alginate dressings for skin lesions

Abstract

In this work, the preparation and characterization of membranes obtained through chitosan and alginate coacervation and designed for use as wound dressings were evaluated. The influence of different stirring rates and rates of addition of chitosan solution to alginate solution on the final characteristics of the biomaterial was analyzed in detail, aiming at a simple and easily scalable membrane production protocol. The results show that membranes with dry thickness from 66 to 80 lm, wet thickness from 106 to 633 lm, tensile strength varying from 6.86 to 31.14 MPa, elongation at break from 3.97 to 8.42%, and maximum water uptake up to 19 g of water per gram of membrane and that are able to prevent the permeation of bacteria can be obtained in a fairly reproducible way by the procedure established. The membranes prepared at flow ratio of 40 mL/h and stirring equal to 100 rpm showed a high potential for use on highly exuding wounds.

Properties of films obtained from biopolymers of different origins for skin lesions therapy

“…This polymer is soluble in aqueous acidic solutions, resulting in structures with different dimensions and geometric configurations, such as films, particles, fibers, and gels (Santos et al 2003;Ragetly et al 2010). The polycationic nature of chitosan enables its association with polymers with negative charges such as alginate (Rodrigues et al 2008;Bueno and Moraes 2011), dextran derivatives (Fukuda et al 1978), polyesters (Silva et al 2010), silk fibers (She et al 2008), gelatin (Liu et al 2004;Yin et al 2005), and xanthan gum (Eftaiha et al 2009;Bellini et al 2012;Veiga and Moraes 2012), resulting in stable polyelectrolyte complexes. Xanthan gum is a water-soluble exopolysaccharide synthesized by Xanthomonas and is used as emulsifier, suspension stabilizer, flocculant, gelling and viscosity agent.…”

Use of chitosan and polypropylene for the surgical correction of penile deviation in bulls: clinical and histological aspects

“…The prepared slabs were evaluated for maximum uptake capacity and mass loss in water and fetal bovine serum, tensile mechanical properties and morphology basically as indicated by Rodrigues et al (2008).…”

Recent Trends in Alginate, Chitosan and Alginate-Chitosan Antimicrobial Systems

“…As microsystems, alginate-chitosan fi lms show some antimicrobial properties either due to mechanical blockage of microorganisms on the surface of fi lms or due to antimicrobial effect of the chitosan itself [59,60]. Inclusion of antimicrobial substances like: silver nanoparticles [61], copper ions [62], natamycin [63,64], minocycline [65], ciprofl oxacin [66], silver sulfadiazine [67] and chlorhexidine [68] (Figure 4) leads to increased antimicrobial properties of alginate-chitosan fi lms which allows their use in various fi elds such as: wound dressings materials development [59][60][61]66,67], antibacterial functional coatings with controlled release [62,65], pharmaceutical forms with sustained release [67,68], scaffolds for tissue engineering [60], food packaging [61,63,64] and water treatment [62].…”

“…Films can be obtained without [61,62,67,68] or using calcium chloride [59,60,[63][64][65][66]] to cross-linking alginate. Structurally, antimicrobial membranes may consist of a homogenous alginate-chitosan mixture [59][60][61][62][63][64]67,68] or two and more individual layers of alginate and chitosan which adhere to each other [62,65,66].…”

“…Structurally, antimicrobial membranes may consist of a homogenous alginate-chitosan mixture [59][60][61][62][63][64]67,68] or two and more individual layers of alginate and chitosan which adhere to each other [62,65,66].…”