The substrate with antiseptic helps in healing wounds and burns

Nanotechnology coating fights infections by healing wounds

Roman Ivanov, Computer

Experiments on mice have proven that an ultrathin polymer layer with an impregnated surgical bactericidal drug helps heal wounds, preventing their infection.

Using the technology developed in the laboratory of Professor Nicholas Abbott, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) produced a polymer nanofilm containing chlorhexidine, and then fixed it on a biological dressing for covering wounds, which is already on the market.

Such dressings are sometimes called "artificial skin" because they are based on biological molecules that trigger rapid healing; thus, these materials are essential in the treatment of burns and chronic ulcers. However, as is known, infections can block the healing process in 20% of real cases, reducing the effect of "artificial skin" to zero.

To somehow cope with unwanted infections, scientists tried to lay a gauze bandage soaked in chlorhexidine between the wound and the "artificial skin". Unfortunately, it turned out that too high a concentration of antiseptic kills young skin cells, thereby only slowing healing, not to mention the fact that the gauze needs to be changed periodically, exposing the wound.

The use of a new nanotechnological approach made it possible to significantly reduce the concentration of chlorhexidine gradually released by the host polymer film. The effectiveness of the approach in blocking infections and activating recovery was confirmed in experiments on mice, the results of which are described in an article published in the journal Biomaterials (Agarwal et al., Polymeric multilayers that localize the release of chlorhexidine from biologic wound dressings).

In particular, it was shown that the new nanotechnological material can reduce the number of bacterial colonies by 99.9% in the first three days of use. And in the case of chronic ulcers and burns, if it is possible to avoid the onset of infection in the first three days after applying the "artificial skin", there is at least a 90 percent chance that the entire healing process will be successful and fast.

Prepared based on the materials of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: High-tech wound dressing fights infection in mouse trial.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.07.2012