Evaluation of nano hydrogel composite based on gelatin/HA/CS suffused with Asiatic acid/ZnO and CuO nanoparticles for second degree burns.

In the present work, a hydrogel platform composed of biopolymer gelatin, and glycosaminoglycan's (Hyaluronic acid and Chondroitin sulfate) incorporated with Asiatic acid (a triterpenoid) and nanoparticles (Zinc oxide and Copper oxide) has been designed and developed to find out the efficacy of healing in second degree burn wounds in Wistar rats. The developed hydrogel composite has been characterized by physico-chemical methods such as; SEM, swelling, mechanical strength, degradation and drug release kinetics. Results showed that the morphology of composite scaffolds are porous with maximum water uptake capacity of 1068% and possessed tensile strength of ~0.196 MPa. Anti-microbial evaluation depicted increase in zone of inhibition with hydrogel containing gelatin + ZnO (5.3 ± 0.2 mm in E. coli and 4.9 ± 0.6 mm in S. aureus) and gelatin + CuO (4.8 ± 0.7 mm in E. coli, 3.8 ± 0.3 mm in S. aureus) in comparison to hydrogel composite scaffold. In-vitro cytocompatibility of developed hydrogel composite was assessed in terms of MTT and DNA quantification on L929 fibroblast cells. In-vivo studies for the composite scaffolds were evaluated on Wistar rats after second degree burn wounds were induced and studied for 28 days which showed the significant wound healing activity in comparison to the control (NeuSkin™ and Cotton guaze) in terms of DNA, total protein, hexosamine and hydroxyproline content. Histopathology studies showed the significant progress in re-epithelization, collagen fibers arrangement and angiogenesis in comparison to control. Additionally, a decrease of TNF-α and increase of MMP-2 expression on day 7 of animal experiment support healing. Furthermore, no toxicity was seen with the developed scaffolds suggesting their suitability to use as a wound dressing in second degree burns.