A soft tissue fabricated using a freeze-drying technique with carboxymethyl chitosan and nanoparticles for promoting effects on wound healing

Objective(s): Many people suffer from skin injuries due to various problems such as burns and accidents. Therefore, it is essential to shorten treatment time and providing strategies that can control the progression of the wound that would be effective in wound healing process and also reduce its economic costs. Methods: The present study aimed to prepare a nanocomposite dressing (NCD) composed of carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), and Fe2O3 nanoparticles by a method called freeze-drying (FD) technique. The effect of different weight percentages of Fe2O3 (0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5 wt%) reinforcement on mechanical and biological properties such as tensile strength, biodegradability, and cell behavior was evaluated. Also, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were used to characterize the soft porous membrane. The biological response in the physiological saline was performed to determine the rate of degradation of NCD in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) for a specific time. Results: The obtained results demonstrated that the wound dress was porous architecture with micron-size interconnections. In fact, according to the results, as the magnetite nanoparticles amount increases, the porosity increases too. On the other hand, the tensile strength was 0.32 and 0.85 MPa for the pure sample and the sample containing the highest percentage of magnetic nanoparticles, respectively. Besides, the cytotoxicity of this nanocomposite was determined by MTT assays for 7 days and showed no cytotoxicity toward the growth of fibroblasts cells and had proper in vitro biocompatibility. The obtained results revealed that NCD had remarkable biodegradability, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties. Therefore, NCD composed of CMC and Fe2O3 nanoparticles was introduced as a promising candidate for wound healing applications. Conclusions: According to the obtained results, the optimum NCD specimen with 5 wt% Fe2O3 has the best mechanical and biological properties.