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. 2025 Apr 8;6(2):18.
doi: 10.3390/ebj6020018.

Bioabsorbable Poly(vinyl alcohol)-Citric Acid Dressings: Wound Healing Studies in an Experimental In Vivo Model

Jonalba Mendes Pereira  1 , Emilia Angela Lo Schiavo Arisawa  1 , Antônio Luiz Martins Maia Filho  2 , José Figueredo-Silva  2 , Nicoly Alves  1 , Carolina Hahn da Silveira  1 , Lucia Vieira  1
Affiliations

Bioabsorbable Poly(vinyl alcohol)-Citric Acid Dressings: Wound Healing Studies in an Experimental In Vivo Model

Jonalba Mendes Pereira et al. Eur Burn J. .

Abstract

Background: The wound healing process presents notable challenges for nursing teams, requiring extensive knowledge of wound care materials. A nanoparticle-free, bioabsorbable pol-yvinyl alcohol (PVA) with citric acid (CA) dressing produced by simple electrospin-ning was evaluated to treat acute wound healing in rats. This PVA-CA combination promotes crosslinking, increases the dressing capacity of absorption and confers heal-ing properties due to the citric acid antioxidant action.

Methods: The dressing was tested in a quantitative experiment on 1.9 cm acute dermatological lesions in rats (n = 12), com-paring the PVA-CA-treated group with the untreated control group (CG). Samples were collected at 3, 7 and 14 days after lesion induction to evaluate the inflammatory process and tissue healing.

Results: The macroscopic and histological data on the third day showed similar characteristics in both groups; however, after fourteen days, the PVA-CA group exhibited complete healing, accompanied by recomposition of the skin layers, whereas the wounds in the CG did not close completely.

Conclusions: The results highlight that electrospun PVA-AC dressings improve healing outcomes and constitute a prom-ising and affordable solution, providing a suitable environment for tissue repair, re-ducing inflammatory cell infiltration, blood vessel formation, and restoration of epi-thelial tissue, reducing the time of the healing process of acute wounds.

Keywords: bioabsorbable; dressings; polyvinyl alcohol–citric acid (PVA-AC); wound healing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Electrospinning system; (b) photomicrograph obtained by MEV of PVA fiber morphology; (c) crosslinked explanation of PVA + citric acid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Three induced experimental lesions, with approximately a 1.9 cm diameter, immediately after the experimental procedures in the control group; (b) PVA group treated with bioabsorbable poly(vinyl alcohol)–citric acid dressings; (c) 4 cm2 of the PVA dressing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
FTIR transmittance plot of the spectra of PVA-CA and of the pure PVA, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Reduction in wound area of skin lesions over the experimental intervals of 0, 3, 7, and 14 days. The images were acquired with a Nikon Coolpix AW130 digital camera in the primary mode (without flash or zoom) fixed on an aluminum support 20 cm away from the area of interest. Control group (a–d); PVA-CA (e–h), respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparative plot (a) of wound healing in the control (b) and PVA (c) treated groups of albino rats.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Histological aspects at experimental times of 3, 7, and 14 days of the CG and PVA groups were stained with HE (40 and 400×). Crust (formula image), blood capillaries (↑), extracellular matrix (*), fibroblasts and collagen fibers (#), and epidermis (▲).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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