Fabrication and characterization of the porous duck's feet collagen sponge for wound healing applications

There are several artificial dermis commonly use to cover the wound and promote healing. The major goal of wound management is fast and scarless healing. However, there is no ideal skin substitute, that is effective to accelerate wound healing without scar formation. Artificial dermis substitute also has some drawbacks, such as high cost, insufficient available period and donor pathogen infection. To overcome these problems, we developed duck's feet collagen (DFC) sponge as artificial dermal substitutes for the treatment of full-thickness skin defects. We measured these DFC sponge's comparative characteristics and performances with an artificial dermis Colladerm by carried out SEM-EDX analyze, water-binding abilities and porosity test. Biocompatibility test was also performed using CCK-8 cytotoxicity assay. We also evaluated its wound healing effects for a full-thickness skin wound and compared with Colladerm in a rat model. Histological studies were carried via hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's Trichrome staining. Although the wound healing effect of the DFC sponge was almost similar to that of Colladerm, the DFC sponge did not induce scar formation and wound contracture like Colladerm. We suggest that DFC sponge can be used as an ideal dermal substitute to the treatment of full-thickness skin wound.