Antimicrobial effect of wound healing nano-containing polymer materials

Background: Treatment of infected wounds presents the biggest difficulty for the surgeon. The treatment of skin lesions has recently increased due to the effect of developed local multi-application forms saturated with nano-sized antiseptic preparations, namely with metals nano-oxides: zinc oxide, magnesium oxide, iron oxide, silver oxide, etc.

Material and methods: We have developed a biodegradable polymer film that is flexible and has the ability to biodegrade and deliver the remedy to the area of injury. Saturated with active components, polymer films have been studied for their antimicrobial effect against clinical strains of opportunistic microorganisms commonly present in wounds, which were isolated from patients with purulent-septic diseases: Staphyloccus aureus, Staphyloccus epidermidis, Staphyloccus haemolyticus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida tropicalis yeasts.

Results: The films saturated with zinc nano-oxide have been characterized by high antimicrobial effect against all used microbial cultures. Films containing 5 and 10% of ZnO appeared to produce larger areas of growth inhibition against the most strains in comparison to the films containing 1% of ZnO. In contrast to zinc nano-oxide, the presence of magnesium in films hasn’t proved to have any antimicrobial effect.

Conclusions: Biodegradable films with 5% of nano-oxide content have optimal antimicrobial effect in vitro against relatively opportunistic microorganisms and require further experimental and clinical studies.