Antibacterial polyurethanes, modified with cinnamaldehyde, as potential materials for fabrication of wound dressings

The epidermis is a skin layer, which protects an organism from the different factors of external environment. Therefore, the fast and effective regeneration of epidermis is important. Potential materials used for epidermis regeneration may be polyurethane scaffolds in form of the thin permeable layers. One and main disadvantage of such polyurethane scaffolds are their lack of antibacterial and antifungal properties. The great proposition to improve antiseptic properties of polyurethane epidermis scaffolds is to modify them with the use of substances, which reveal antiseptic, antimicrobial, and/or antifungal properties like cinnamaldehyde (CA). The great advantage speaking in favor of this compound is the fact that it has been approved and concerned as generally safe by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA. In this paper was described the fabrication of antibacterial microporous polyurethane scaffolds (MPTLs) in a form of a thin layers by using solvent-casting/particulate-leaching technique combined with thermally induced phase separation. Obtained MPTLs were modified with CA at different concentrations (0.5-5%): to establish the most suitable antibacterial effect of the CA introduced into the MPTLs matrix. Obtained unmodified and CA-modified MPTLs were characterized by mechanical and physicochemical properties as well as by identification of their antibacterial performance. The performed studies revealed that the most relevant antimicrobial effect of CA-modified MPTLs was observed when the CA concentration was 3.5%.