Slightly degradable, naturally antibacterial hydrogel matrixes derived from polyvinyl alcohol and linear/branched-polyethyleneimine as a wound dressing material

Abstract

PVA:PEI based film gels were prepared at various weight ratios, 10–100% of linear-PEI (L-PEI) and branched-PEI (B-PEI) to PVA as PVA:L-PEI or PVA:B-PEI to demonstrate the effect of PEI types on hydrolytic degradation, blood compatibility, antibacterial properties, and cytotoxicity. The hydrolytic degradation studies, done at ∼ skin pH, 5.4 and revealed that PVA:PEI-based film gels, 1:0.1 wt% are degradable with a gravimetric weight losses of16.80 ± 1.39% and 17.20 ± 1.21% up to 7 days, and decreased as the wt% of L-PEI and B-PEI were increased in the matrix. The blood compatibility assays done through hemolysis and blood clotting tests disclosed only PVA:B-PEI film gels at 1.0 mg/mL concentration were found blood compatible. The antimicrobial studies revealed that regardless of the types and weight ratio of L-PEI or B-PEI, all PVA:L-PEI and PVA:B-PEI based film gels possess a potent antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, the cytotoxicity test results examined on the L929 cell line uncovered that only PVA:L-PEI and PVA:B-PEI even at very low concentrations of L-PEI or B-PEI, for example, PVA:L-PEI and PVA:B-PEI at 1:0.1 weight ratio film gel at 10 mg/mL show toxic effect, for example <50% cell viability suggesting lesser concentration use in biomedical applications.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• PVA:PEI-based cryogels & film gels
• wound dressing material
• slightly degradable materials
• antibacterial PVA:PEI-based film gels

Authors’ Contributions

Betul Ari: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Selin S Suner: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Mehtap Sahiner: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Sahin Demirci: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Nurettin Sahiner: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Investigation, Writing - review and editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.