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Review
. 2018 Apr 2;10(2):42.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics10020042.

Alginate in Wound Dressings

Blessing Atim Aderibigbe  1 , Buhle Buyana  2
Affiliations
Review

Alginate in Wound Dressings

Blessing Atim Aderibigbe et al. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Alginate is a biopolymer used in a variety of biomedical applications due to its favourable properties, such as biocompatibility and non-toxicity. It has been particularly attractive in wound healing applications to date. It can be tailored to materials with properties suitable for wound healing. Alginate has been used to prepare different forms of materials for wound dressings, such as hydrogels, films, wafers, foams, nanofibres, and in topical formulations. The wound dressings prepared from alginate are able to absorb excess wound fluid, maintain a physiologically moist environment, and minimize bacterial infections at the wound site. The therapeutic efficacy of these wound dressings is influenced by the ratio of other polymers used in combination with alginate, the nature of cross linkers used, the time of crosslinking, nature of excipients used, the incorporation of nanoparticles, and antibacterial agents. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the different forms of wound dressings containing alginate, in vitro, and in vivo results.

Keywords: alginate; biopolymers; films; foams; hydrogels; nanofibers; wound dressing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Phases of wound healing.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of wound dressings.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structure of α-l-guluronic and β-d-mannuronic alginate residues.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Films for wound dressing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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