Preparation and characterization of injectable self-antibacterial gelatin/ carrageenan/bacterial cellulose hydrogel scaffolds for wound healing application

This study reports the preparation of self-crosslinked Schiff base gels using gelatin and oxidized carrageenan gum interpenetrated with bacterial cellulose (BC) as injectable drug delivery systems. The injectable gels were successfully prepared at body temperature upon blending with BC and loaded with bovine serum albumin (as the model drug) to produce scaffolds. The gel scaffolds were characterized via rheological, FTIR, SEM, XRD, TGA and mechanical compression analysis. Gelation kinetics of gels as well as swelling, in vitro degradation and drug release kinetics of gel scaffolds were examined. Results showed that the incorporation of BC to the gel system considerably improved mechanical integrity with remarkable rheological shear-thinning properties. Maximum in vitro cumulative drug release from gel scaffolds was determined as 84.01 +/- 3.66% within the studied time interval of 168 h. Further analysis showed that the prepared gel scaffolds possess self-antibacterial properties with growth inhibition capacity against E. coli, S. aureus, and K. pneumonia. In vitro cell cytotoxicity was also performed by MTT assay and results depicted >80% cell viability, which indicates the gel scaffolds are cytocompatible. In conclusion, this paper presents a facile approach to fabricate all-natural crosslinked injectable selfantibacterial gels systems with prospective potential application in wound dressing and tissue regeneration.