RESUMO
COVID-19 caused by novel coronavirus is a serious pandemic that has affected the various countries all across the globe. The effect of this pandemic is so devastating that many rising nations are brought to their knees and struggling to save the damage posed to their economy. Medical professionals and the healthcare community are paying their best effort to minimize and overcome the spread of this pandemic. To continue to fight against the COVID-19, healthcare delivery systems require the support of novel technologies which can meet their rapid demand for medical equipment and devices. The study explores the damage caused by COVID-19 to the industrial sector and the way AM is contributing to the economy post-COVID-19. State of the art concerning the application of AM in the present scenario especially to support the interrupted global supply chain is collected and analysed to identify its relevance in the battle against COVID-19.
RESUMO
The absorption capacity of cotton dressings is a critical factor in their widespread use where they help absorb wound exudate. Cotton wax dressings, in contrast, are used for wounds where care is taken to avoid adhesion of dressings to sensitive wounds such as burn injuries. Accordingly, we explored the loading of 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), a small sugar, which stimulates angiogenesis and wound healing in normal and diabetic rats, into both types of dressings and measured the release of it over several days. The results showed that approximately 90% of 2dDR was released between 3 and 5 days when loaded into cotton dressings. For wax-coated cotton dressings, several methods of loading of 2dDR were explored. A strategy similar to the commercial wax coating methodology was found the best protocol which provided a sustained release over 5 days. Cytotoxicity analysis of 2dDR loaded cotton dressing showed that the dressing stimulated metabolic activity of fibroblasts over 7 days confirming the non-toxic nature of this sugar-loaded dressings. The results of the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay demonstrated a strong angiogenic response to both 2dDR loaded cotton dressing and to 2dDR loaded cotton wax dressings. Both dressings were found to increase the number of newly formed blood vessels significantly when observed macroscopically and histologically. We conclude this study offers a simple approach to developing affordable wound dressings as both have the potential to be evaluated as pro-active dressings to stimulate wound healing in wounds where management of exudate or prevention of adherence to the wounds are clinical requirements.