NANOCERIA INFUSED CHITOSAN-PVA HYDROGELS TO TREAT BURN WOUNDS

Abstract

Burn wounds are highly dangerous injuries with significant mortality rates. They are painful and increase the risk of bacterial infection. Burn wounds could also harm adjacent tissues by releasing dangerous compounds. Thus, their treatment should work quickly and effectively. Hydrogels are used as burn wound dressings that provide a suitable environment for regeneration. They closely imitate the structure of the skin’s extracellular matrix and have high water uptake properties, providing a moist environment for faster healing. Chitosan-PVA based hydrogels demonstrated antibacterial and healing effects on wounds. Nanoparticles of cerium oxide called nanoceria were shown to reduce local oxidative stress by decomposing reactive oxygen species. The goal of this study is to learn the effects of nanoceria infused chitosan-PVA hydrogels on wound regeneration. We characterized hydrogels with various chitosan-PVA ratios, crosslinked with tetraethyl orthosilicate. These trials improved the procedure for making hydrogels capable of maintaining a moist environment for better wound healing. Further experiments demonstrated the biocompatibility and antibacterial properties of the hydrogels crosslinked with glutaraldehyde, where 3T3 fibroblasts seeded on the hydrogels were shown to be viable and zone of inhibition tests performed with E. coli demonstrated the antibacterial capacity of the hydrogels. Future studies will determine the antioxidant capacity and further bioactive properties of the nanoceria infused hydrogel. Once the small-scale procedure is well established the proposed methods could be implemented in clinical applications to aid in burn wound recovery.