Antibiotic-loaded chitosan-gelatin scaffolds for infected seawater immersion wound healing

Skin damaged during sea battles is vulnerable to seawater immersion and bacterial infection. Scaffolds with ef-fective biological function are highly desired for treatment of naval combat wound injuries. Herein, we prepared composite scaffolds of CS/GEL/GMs-CIP. The chitosan (CS) and gelatin (GEL) were cross-linked by genipin as ma-trix, and then gelatin microspheres loading ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (GMs-CIP) were add. From in vitro char-acterization results, CS/GEL/GMs-CIP had high water absorption ability, proper porosity, satisfactory fracture resistance, and flexibility. Furthermore, CS/GEL/GMs-CIP composite scaffold had excellent biocompatibility. An-tibacterial experiments confirmed that CS/GEL/GMs-CIP had a significant inhibitory effect on E. coli, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. The in vivo wound healing was evaluated using animal wound infection model of seawater im-mersion, and it was observed that the prepared composite scaffolds accelerated wound healing, reepithelialization, collagen deposition. Further analysis of wound tissue indicated that the expression of anti-inflammatory factor (TGF-beta 1) was up-regulated, but the serum endotoxin levels and expression of pro-inflammatory factor (TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-1 beta) were down-regulated. In summary, we believe that CS/GEL/GMs-CIP composite scaffold may serve as a promising multifunctional dressing for healing with open trauma wound infections and wound with seawater immersion. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.