Wound Healing Activity of Nanoclay/Spring Water Hydrogels

Abstract

Background: hydrogels prepared with natural inorganic excipients and spring waters are commonly used in medical hydrology. Design of these clay-based formulations continues to be a field scarcely addressed. Safety and wound healing properties of different fibrous nanoclay/spring water hydrogels were addressed. Methods: in vitro biocompatibility, by means of MTT assay, and wound healing properties were studied. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy was used to study the morphology of fibroblasts during the wound healing process. Results: all the ingredients demonstrated to be biocompatible towards fibroblasts. Particularly, the formulation of nanoclays as hydrogels improved biocompatibility with respect to powder samples at the same concentration. Spring waters and hydrogels were even able to promote in vitro fibroblasts motility and, therefore, accelerate wound healing with respect to the control. Conclusion: fibrous nanoclay/spring water hydrogels proved to be skin-biocompatible and to possess a high potential as wound healing formulations. Moreover, these results open new prospects for these ingredients to be used in new therapeutic or cosmetic formulations.

Correlation between Elemental Composition/Mobility and Skin Cell Proliferation of Fibrous Nanoclay/Spring Water Hydrogels

“…ALIPS9 and ALIG30@10 hydrogels (both with a solid concentration of 10%) have been demonstrated to be biocompatible against fibroblasts [ 17 ]. Moreover, in the very same study, the in vitro scratch assay proved that the hydrogels were able to accelerate wound closure by favoring fibroblast migration.…”

“…Consequently, the ALIG30@20 hydrogel was prepared and its biocompatibility was evaluated. To do so, the methodology described by García-Villén et al [ 17 ] was used. Normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs, PromoCell GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany) were seeded and cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM, Sigma Aldrich ® -Merck, Milan, Italy), supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Euroclone, Milan, Italy), 200 IU/mL penicillin and 0.2 mg/mL streptomycin (PBI International, I).…”

“…Several dermatological affections have been successfully treated by formulations that include clay minerals [ 4 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Currently, special attention is being paid to wound healing treatments, in which clay minerals have been demonstrated to be very useful [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. During administration of the formulation, elements from the hydrogel could permeate and/or penetrate across the skin barrier.…”

“…During administration of the formulation, elements from the hydrogel could permeate and/or penetrate across the skin barrier. In a previous study, hydrogels prepared with two different fibrous nanoclays were shown to be fully biocompatible and to exert in vitro wound healing activity [ 17 ]. More particularly, it was demonstrated that the fibrous nanoclay hydrogels promoted in vitro fibroblast mobility during wound healing processes.…”

“…Based on these premises, the aim of this study was to assess the in vitro release and mobility of elements with potential wound healing effects from hydrogels formulated with spring waters and nanoclays that have recently been demonstrated to enhance fibroblast mobility [ 17 ]. In vitro Franz cell studies were performed in order to reproduce the topical administration of the formulations and elemental concentration was measured by inductively coupled plasma techniques.…”