In vivo and in vitro evaluation of chitosan-modified bioactive glass paste for wound healing

In this work, the role of chitosan (CS) in improving the properties of bioactive glass (BG) paste for wound healing was studied. Based on in vitro evaluation, it was found that the addition of CS neutralizes the pH value from 11.0 to 7.5, which did not lead to decreasing the bioactivity of BG paste in vitro. The rheological properties showed that the composite paste had higher bio-adhesion and better affinity with the skin surface than either CS or the BG paste. The antibacterial property evaluation showed that the composite paste had stronger antibacterial activity than either CS or BG paste and promoted the proliferation of HUVECs (human umbilical vein endothelial cells) and HaCat (human immortalized keratinocyte cells). Comparatively, the effect of promoting the proliferation of HUVECs is more significant than that of HaCat. The burn-wound model of rat was developed for evaluating in vivo activity, and the addition of CS effectively promoted wound healing without obvious inflammation according to the IL-1β and IL-6 staining. This novel paste is expected to provide a promising alternative for wound healing.