Designing and evaluation of mupirocin-bFGF co-loaded biodegradable antimicrobial gelatin-chitosan sponge for topical wound management in rat model.

INTRODUCTION

Wound dressings help to prevent the wound from being infected and allow gaseous exchange, along with absorbing excessive wound exudates. Open wounds are very prone to bacterial infection, mostly Staphylococcus aureus may hinder the healing rate. Therefore, a fast, safe, effective, biodegradable antimicrobial wound dressing material needs to be developed. In this research, a basic fibroblast growth factor and mupirocin co-loaded biodegradable polymeric sponge was developed and evaluated for wound dressing applications.

METHODS

An Antimicrobial gelatin-chitosan sponge was prepared by the surfactant foaming method. Different combinations were prepared and evaluated for water uptake, digestibility, porosity, folding endurance, morphology, FT-IR analysis, drug-loading, entrapment efficiency, in-vitro drug release, antimicrobial study, in-vivo study using rat excision model, along with histological analysis.

RESULTS

The Developed sponge was found with satisfactory water uptake capacity (76.96 ± 0.79%), porosity (71.64 ± 0.7), and folding endurance (251.33 ± 4.33%), and was completely digested. Microscopy confirms the internal porous structure. Drug loading and entrapment efficiency of the final formulation were found to be 1.859 ± 0.024% and 92.95 ± 1.09%, respectively. The formulation releases 88.018 ± 3.12% mupirocin in 5 hours and best fitted in the Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetic model with a non-Fickian transport mechanism. Antimicrobial studies show a zone of inhibition of 37±2.65 mm. The wound healing study and histological studies of the formulation showed accelerated wound contraction and healing efficacy.