Wound healing evaluation of sodium fucidate-loaded polyvinylalcohol/sodium carboxymethylcellulose-based wound dressing.

The cross-linked hydrogel films containing sodium fucidate were previously reported to be prepared polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC) using the freeze-thawing method and their physicochemical property was investigated. For the development of novel sodium fucidate-loaded wound dressing, here its in vivo wound healing test and histopathology were performed compared with the conventional ointment product. In wound healing test, the sodium fucidate-loaded composed of 2.5% PVA, 1.125% Na-CMC and 0.2% drug showed faster healing of the wound made in rat dorsum than the hydrogel without drug, indicating the potential healing effect of sodium fucidate. Furthermore, from the histological examination, the healing effect of sodium fucidate-loaded hydrogel was greater than that of the conventional ointment product and hydrogel without drug, since it might gave an adequate level of moisture and build up the exudates on the wound area. Thus, the sodium fucidate-loaded wound dressing composed of 5% PVA, 1.125% Na-CMC and 0.2% drug is a potential wound dressing with excellent wound healing.

Endothelial cell seeding on crosslinked collagen: effects of crosslinking on endothelial cell proliferation and functional parameters.

Endothelial cell seeding, a promising method to improve the performance of small-diameter vascular grafts, requires a suitable substrate, such as crosslinked collagen. Commonly used crosslinking agents such as glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde cause, however, cytotoxic reactions and thereby hamper endothelialization of currently available collagen-coated vascular graft materials. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an alternative method for crosslinking of collagen, using N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethylcarbodiimide (EDC) in combination with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), on various cellular functions of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro. Compared to non-crosslinked type I collagen, proliferation of seeded endothelial cells was significantly increased on EDC/NHS-crosslinked collagen. Furthermore, higher cell numbers were found with increasing crosslink densities. Neither the morphology of the cells nor the secretion of prostacyclin (PGI2), von Willebrand factor (vWF), tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) was affected by the crosslink density of the collagen substrate. Therefore, EDC/NHS-crosslinked collagen is candidate substrate for in vivo application such as endothelial cell seeding of collagen-coated vascular grafts.