Toxicity assessment of wearable wound sensor constituents on keratinocytes

This research reports on the cytotoxicity of materials present in a wound biosensor on human keratinocytes (HaCaT) to evaluate the biocompatibility of the sensor for continuous wound monitoring applications. Individual and collective effects of the sensor materials, gold (Au) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs), unease enzyme (UOx), ferrocene carboxylic acid (FCA), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and poly vinyl alcohol-based polymer (PVA-SbQ) on HaCaT were studied. The toxicology profiles of these materials were derived from cell viability, mitochondrial activity retention and apoptotic behavior studies. At the concentrations present in the sensor, the cell viability studies showed minimal toxicity for Au and Ag NPs, UOx and FCA (cell viability > 75%), while MWCNTs and PVA-SbQ exhibited excellent biocompatibility towards keratinocytes (cell viability > 90%). Resazurin assay confirmed minimal impairment of mitochondrial activity at lower concentrations for all the materials (mitochondrial activity > 0.7). The caspase-3/7 apoptotic assay showed no pronounced apoptotic behavior caused by the materials. The material mixtures studied were Au/UOx/FCA/PVA-SbQ, Ag/UOx/FCA/PVA-SbQ, and MWCNTs/UOx/FCA/PVA-SbQ. A higher toxicity profile was observed for the heterogeneous material mixtures as a result of the cumulative effect of the individual materials. However, the biosensor itself was seen to exhibit lower toxicity (similar to 5%) compared to the material mixtures, due to the protective PVA-SbQ capping over the biosensor. This work establishes the biocompatibility of the reported wound sensor for human measurements with minimal toxic effects on human keratinocytes.