Crosslinked bacterial cellulose hydrogels for biomedical applications

Abstract

Recently, increasing attention has been given to bacterial cellulose-based membranes to be applied as dressings for healing purposes. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an attractive biomaterial due to its unique structural characteristics such as high porosity, high water retention capacity, high mechanical strength, low density, and biodegradability. One drawback of bacterial cellulose hydrogels is that, after the first dehydration, the water retention capacity is hindered. In this work we produced, modified, and characterized hydrated and de-hydrated BC membranes for biomedical applications. Two crosslinking methods were adopted (using citric acid and epichlorohydrin as crosslinking agents), and the results obtained from the characterization, such as water retention capacity, mechanical properties or contact angle, were compared to those of unmodified bacterial cellulose. We demonstrate that the cross-linked bacterial cellulose membranes present physical properties suitable to be used as wound dressings when hydrated, or as exuding wound dressings, when dehydrated.