Biopolymers are becoming more attractive as advanced wound dressings because of their naturally derived origin, abundance, low cost and high compatibility with the wound environment. Arabinoxylan (AX) is a class of polysaccharide polymers derived from cereal grains that are primarily used in food products and cosmetic additives. Its application as a wound dressing material has yet to be realized. In this two-pronged project, arabinoxylan ferulate (AXF) was fabricated into electrospun fibers and gel foams to be evaluated as platforms for wound dressing materials. In the first study, AXF was electrospun with varying amounts of gelatin. In the second study, AXF was dissolved in water, enzymatically crosslinked and lyophilized to form gel foams. The morphology, mechanical properties, porosity, drug release kinetics, fibroblast cell response and anti-microbial properties were examined for both platforms. Carbohydrate assay was conducted to validate the presence of arabinoxylan ferulate in the electrospun GEL-AXF fibers. Swelling and endotoxin quantification studies were done to evaluate the absorptive capacity and sterilization agent efficacy respectively in AXF foams. The results indicated successful fabrication of both platforms which validated the porous, absorptive, biocompatibility and drug release properties. The results also exhibited that silver impregnated AXF scaffolds inhibited growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis bacteria species, anti-microbial properties necessary to function as advanced wound dressing materials. Future work will be done to improve the stability of both platforms as well as evaluate its applications in vivo.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-4983 |
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| Creators | Aduba, Donald C, Jr |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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