Surface fluid-swellable chitosan fiber as the wound dressing material.

The objective of this study was to develop a novel surface fluid-swellable chitosan (SFSC) fiber for potential wound dressing. The SFSC fiber was successfully prepared by surface modification of chitosan fiber with succinic anhydride, which was characterized by FTIR and solid-state (13)C NMR. The SFSC fiber exhibited better water absorption capacity (approx. 2980%) and stronger antibacterial activities (both above 90%) against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) than chitosan fiber (both below 75%). The cell viability was more than 90% after treated with the SFSC fiber extract, which demonstrated that SFSC fiber had low cytotoxicity towards mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs). The SFSC fiber could promote wound healing with advanced development of granulation tissue and epithelial coverage compared with the control (gauze-covered) group. The results indicated that SFSC fiber had great potential to be used as wound dressing material.