Abstract:
Burns are wounds affecting the vital activities of the skin. Polymers, such as chitosan and collagen, can be used as components of nanofibers for tissue scaffolding. Shrimp shells are wastes which may serve as alternative chitosan source. Commercial collagen is expensive thus, isolation from cow integument is an economical alternative. The study aims to test the effectiveness of chitosan-collagen nanofibers from shrimp shell and cow integument in treating 3rd degree burn wounds on Mus musculus. Successful chemical isolation of chitosan from shrimp shell used 2M HCl, 2M NaOH and 3% NaClO- at hight temperature. Chemical digestion of cow integument with pepsin and HCl succesfully isolated collagen. Isolates were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Electrospun nanofibers, composed of varying chitosan and collagen ratios were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Nanofiber diameter is negatively correlated with collagen content while fiber diameters among chitosan-collagen treatments did not vary statistically. 3rd degree burn wounds were inflicted on 5 groups of mice. Silver sulfadiazine and normal saline solution were used as positive and negative control, respectively. Histopathological tests showed that treatment with greater collagen content had statistically lower level of necrosis and polymorphonuclei leukocyte (PMN) infiltration to the dermis and statistically higher levels of fibroblast proliferation and epithelial formation compared to the control groups. Keloidal formations seen as fibroblast aggregations around spaces were present in the control groups but were absent in groups with nanofiber treatments. Electrospun chitosan-collagen nanofibers serve as good alternative burn wound treatments on Mus musculus.
