In this study, it was aimed to produce sericine/collagen composite membranes and to investigate their properties as a wound dressing. Different membrane compositions were prepared by casting and solvent evaporation method. After initial studies for optimization of ratios, membrane groups at two different thicknesses were prepared for each selected ratio and cross-linked with 3 % (w/v) glutaraldehyde (GTA). Considering the wound dressing requirements, equilibrium degree of swelling (EDS), water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), oxygen permeability, mechanical properties, in situ degradation, microbial penetration and cytotoxicity of membranes were examined. The EDS of membranes had a range of 14.91 to 4.37 (g/g) and increased significantly with the presence of sericin. There was no obvious relationship between the sericin ratio of membranes and WVTR, but the increase in membrane thickness decreased WVTR significantly. Thin and sericin containing membranes had statistically better oxygen permeabilities. Sericin deteriorated the tensile strength and elongation of membranes statistically. Cross-linked groups were resistant to hydrolytic degradation through 4 weeks of incubations. None of the membranes were penetrable to bacteria owing to their dense structure. For cytotoxicity studies, 3T3 fibroblasts and keratinocytes were seeded on membranes separately, and analyzed with MTT assays, and light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As regards to MTT assay, keratinocytes proliferated significantly on membranes and reached to high confluence within 7 days. Similarly, fibroblasts also showed high proliferation on membranes. Light microscopy and SEM analysis showed that both cells could attach, grow and spread on membranes. Also, cells gained their characteristic morphology after 1 day and formed flattened structure within 7 days.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12610361/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 February 2009 |
| Creators | Akturk, Omer |
| Contributors | Keskin, Dilek |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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