Synthetic polymeric biomaterials for wound healing: a review

Abstract

Wounds are of a variety of types and each category has its own distinctive healing requirements. This realization has spurred the development of a myriad of wound dressings, each with specific characteristics. It is unrealistic to expect a singular dressing to embrace all characteristics that would fulfill generic needs for wound healing. However, each dressing may approach the ideal requirements by deviating from the 'one size fits all approach', if it conforms strictly to the specifications of the wound and the patient. Indeed, a functional wound dressing should achieve healing of the wound with minimal time and cost expenditures. This article offers an insight into several different types of polymeric materials clinically used in wound dressings and the events taking place at cellular level, which aid the process of healing, while the biomaterial dressing interacts with the body tissue. Hence, the significance of using synthetic polymer films, foam dressings, hydrocolloids, alginate dressings, and hydrogels has been reviewed, and the properties of these materials that conform to wound-healing requirements have been explored. A special section on bioactive dressings and bioengineered skin substitutes that play an active part in healing process has been re-examined in this work.

Keywords: Bio-engineering skin substitutes; Hydrocolloids; Hydrogels; Polymeric biomaterials; Wound healing.

Fig. 1

Eosin and hematoxylin staining shown. In a, b, the epithelial tissue migrates across the surface of the wound to close the wound. In c, the distance between wound edges decreases slowly until the wound closes (Schneider et al. 2008)

Fig. 2

Three-dimensional mosaic rendition of cell aggregates that have been seeded in a control hydrogels, b top, c middle, and d bottom portions of PBFP–polyethylene (glycol) diacrylate gradient hydrogels. The images show vascular sprout in the gradient hydrogel regions. Scalebar 200 µm (Turturro et al. 2013)

Fig. 3

Cells cultured on chitosan and sericin porous matrices are shown using confocal microscopy. Dead cells produce red fluorescence and live cells produce green fluorescence (Nayak et al. 2013)

Fig. 4

Co-culture of cells in fibroblasts and keratinocytes has been seeded on sericin matrices to create a tissue-engineered skin substitute. a Fibroblasts and b keratinocytes (Nayak et al. 2013)