Permeability and Biocompatibility of Novel Medicated Hydrogel Wound Dressings

Hydrogel dressings are being popularized for wound care management because of their softness, tissue compatibility, and ability to enhance wound healing process. PVP-CMC and PVP-CMC-BA hydrogels were prepared using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), sodium-carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), polyethyleneglycol (PEG), agar, glycerine and without/with boric acid (BA). Permeability: water vapor transmission and microbe penetration and biocompatibility: cytotoxicity, skin irritation, and skin sensitization tests of hydrogels were performed. Water vapor transmission ability of hydrogels shows positive response to gas permeability, whereas microbe penetration ability by Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli shows negative penetrability; thus these two hydrogel dressings could be considered as a good barrier against microbes having an excellent oxygen diffusion property. In vitro assay of cytotoxicity was carried out in presence of human immortalized non-tumorigenic keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT), which was further confirmed with balb/c 3T3 mouse fibroblasts cells. The skin irritation test was evaluated on albino rabbits and sensitization test was carried out on albino guinea-pigs under in vivo state. Both PVP-CMC and PVP-CMC-BA represented mostly negative effect on cytotoxicity, dermal irritation, and/or sensitization. All the results indicate that both PVP-CMC and PVP-CMC-BA hydrogels have great potential for biomedical applications, especially for burn skin treatment as well as wound dressings materials.