Development of wound dressing material to prevent scar tissue formation in wound healing and evaluation in vitro

Wound; can be defined as the loss of skin or tissue integrity that is the underlying causes of medical or physiological disorders or injuries such as mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical. The purpose of a wound cover is to stimulate the wound healing process and improve the quality of the healing. Inflammation is one of the essential step for wound healing. However, the inflammatory process has direct effects on normal and abnormal wound healing. Studies have shown that an abnormal wound healing involving hypertrophic scar formation, is the excessive function of fibroblasts and excessive extracellular matrix accumulation. The use of systemic anti-inflammatory drugs to inhibit scar tissue has been shown to suppress the proliferation phase and affects wound healing negatively. It has also been shown that it reduces wound resistance and wound contamination in local and transdermal applications. In this study, aljinate tissue scaffolds containing humic acid have prepared as a wound dressing material. Humic acid has antioxidant, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, antifungal and bactericidal properties due to the presence of phenols, carboxylic acids and quinones in structure. Humic acid has been preferred thanks to its anti- inflammatory effect. Aljinate was used as the main skeleton of the wound dressing material in the project. Aljinate wound dressing materials have high fluid adsorption capacity. Aljinate wound dressings allow wound lesions stay at ideal humidity and temperature. These properties make aljinate wound dressings an ideal dressing material, especially for those with excessive wound exudation. In this study, aljinate and humic acid molecules were covalently cross-linked to obtain a hydrogel wound dressing. For the characterization of biomaterial, water retention capacity and degredation profile of the membranes were evaluated. Additionally, morphological and surface characterization of the material was performed. Furthermore, the effect of the hydrogel on cytokine and collagen type 1 levels were determined. The surface characterization of the wound cover was performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The cytotoxicity of the prepared material to human skin cells (keratinocyte (HaCaT cell line) and fibroblast cells (L929) are investigated. The effect of humic acid on the inflammatory process is determined by in vitro model. İnflammatory response was evaluated via THP-1 cell line. The effect of humic acid on ECM composition was investigated by using the L929 cell line. The collagen type I and type III levels were determined. Keywords: Aljinate, Humic Acid, Wound Dress, Biocompatibility