Keratin-chitosan/n-ZnO nanocomposite hydrogel for antimicrobial treatment of burn wound healing: Characterization and biomedical application.

In the Present-day medicinally applied wound bandages have many drawbacks for, instance, rigidity, non-porosity, low mechanical potency, also an affinity for bandages to stick onto the injury exterior; additionally, a greater part of the bandages did not secure bactericidal activity. Hydrogel derived injury bandages would be supportive to afford a chill feeling with a humidity atmosphere, in addition, to performing as an obstruction to bacteria. To overcome these drawbacks, we have fabricated porous keratin-chitosan/n-ZnO nanocomposite (KCBZNs) bandages via the inclusion of nano-ZnO into the keratin-chitosan hydrogel. The functional group and surface of as-fabricated bandages were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and transmission electron microscopy with selected area diffraction (TEM-SAD). Moreover, mechanical, swelling, bactericidal, bio-compatibility of nanocomposite was assessed to exhibit its efficacy for biological applications. The nanocomposite illustrated increased swelling, and bactericidal activity. Bio-compatibility of the nanocomposite has been investigated in normal human fibroblast cells. Also, the in vivo assessments in SD rats exposed that as-fabricated nanocomposite bandages increased the wound curing with assisted for quicker skin cell construction along with collagen development. Hence, the acquired information strongly supports to utilize of this nanocomposite hydrogels for burn wounds.