JOURNAL OF BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE-POLYMER EDITION, vol.24, no.7, pp.807-819, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study is to prepare a novel wound dressing material which provides burst release of an antibiotic in combination with sustained release of growth factor delivery. This might be beneficial for the prevention of infections and to stimulate wound healing. As a wound dressing material, the semi-interpenetrating network (semi-IPN) hydrogel based on polyacrylamide (PAAm) and chitosan (CS) was synthesized via free radical polymerization. Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was used for cross-linking of PAAm to form semi-IPN hydrogel. The hydrogel shows high water content (approximate to 1800%, in dry basis) and stable swelling characteristics in the pH range of the wound media (approximate to 4.07.4). The antibiotic, piperacillintazobactam, which belongs to the penicillin group was loaded into the hydrogel. The therapeutic serum dose of piperacillintazobactam for topic introduction was reached at 1st hour of the release. Additionally, in order to increase the mitogenic activity of hydrogel, epidermal growth factor (EGF) was embedded into the CSPAAm in different amounts. Cell culture studies were performed with L929 mouse fibroblasts and the simulated cell growth was investigated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The successful sustained release behavior of CSPAAm hydrogel for EGF maintained the presence of EGF in the culture up to 5days and the highest mitochondrial activities were recorded for the 0.4g EGF-loaded/mg of hydrogel group. In conclusion, CSPAAm semi-IPN hydrogel loaded with piperacillintazobactam and EGF could be proposed for an effective system in wound-healing management.