Bacterial cellulose/hyaluronic acid nanocomposites production through co-culturing Gluconacetobacter hansenii and Lactococcus lactis in a two-vessel circulating system

Bacterial cellulose (BC) based composites have been widely studied in the biomedical field. In this study, the BC/HA (hyaluronic acid) nanocomposites in the pellicle form were directly produced through co-culturing Gluconacetobacter hansenii ATCC 23769 and Lactococcus lactis APJ3 in a novel two-vessel circulating system. The concentration of HA secreted by L. lactis was controlled through adjusting the constant feed rate of glucose. The dynamic growth of the strains revealed that L. lactis was mainly growing within 48 h while G. hansenii started to grow after 48 h. XRD analysis indicated the presence of HA would not affect the crystallinity of cellulose but increase the crystalline sizes. The FESEM images showed that more ribbons within the width of 20-40 nm and larger ribbons between 180 and 360 nm were observed in BC/HA. The strain at break and the water holding capacity of BC/HA increased with the concentration of HA.