Abstract

Medical devices containing and releasing antiinfective agents directly on the site of injury are a common group of materials available and widely used in treating difficult to heal wounds. Sustained contact of the active agent to the damaged tissue, needed to inhibit infection and preservation of microbiological purity of the wound, is provided by the immobilization antimicrobial agents on the surface of the matrix material or by providing controlled release profile from its interior.Use of natural polymers such as collagen and chitosan allows materials to receive similar properties to the extracellular matrix. The advantage of this type of materials is also their biocompatibility, no toxicity and low propensity to cause allergic reactions. The colourless and odourless collagen from the fish skins, can be isolated in a high yield by an exhaustive extraction of the organic acids. Chitosan is produced commercially by deacetylation of chitin, which is the structural element in the exoskeleton of crustaceans and cell walls of fungi. Both of them are commonly used in a large-scale production of many applications.Recently we have developed several biopolymer spongy systems designed for release of antimicrobial peptides such as lysostaphin, which have appropriate texture profile and other properties for modern medical wound dressings. Lysostaphin is a zinc metalloproteinase that degrades the cell wall of almost all known staphylococcal species. As a result of modifications in both the matrix composition and concentration of crosslinking agent a number of materials with different absorption, solubility and texture parameters were received. This is especially valuable when designing systems for the controlled supply of chemotherapeutics at the site of injury. Control of composition and concentration of crosslinking agent allows to control the rate of release of immobilized peptide inside the matrix, depending on the speed of its degradation, and diffusion kinetics.

Authors (3)