Conclusion
These findings revealed that although the incorporation of zeolites did not induce a significant beneficial effect in comparison with Alg hydrogel, using zeolite capacity in hydrogel for loading the antibiotics or other effective compounds can be considered a promising wound dressing.
Methods
The zeolites were size excluded, characterized by SEM, DLS, XRD, FTIR, and XRF, and then integrated into Alg hydrogel followed by calcium chloride crosslinking. The Alg and alginate zeolite (Alg/Zeo) hydrogel was characterized by swelling and weight loss tests, also the antibacterial, hemocompatibility, and cell viability tests were performed. In animal studies, the burn wound was induced on the back of rats and treated with the following groups: control, Alg hydrogel, and Alg/Zeo hydrogel.
Results
The results showed that the hydrodynamic diameter of zeolites was 367 ± 0.2 nm. Zeolites did not show any significant antibacterial effect, however, the hydrogel nanocomposite containing zeolite had proper swelling as well as hemocompatibility and no cytotoxicity was observed. Following the creation of a third-degree burn wound on the back of rats, the results indicated that the Alg hydrogel and Alg/Zeo nanocomposite accelerated the wound healing process compared with the control group. Re-epithelialization, granulation tissue thickness, collagenization, inflammatory cell recruitment, and angiogenesis level were not significantly different between Alg and Alg/Zeo nanocomposite.