[Potential Use of Sacran Hydrogels as Wound Dressing Material]

A wound dressing is one of the essential approaches to prevent further harm to cutaneous wounds as well as to promote wound healing. Therefore, to achieve ideal wound healing, the development of advanced dressing materials is necessary. Sacran, a novel megamolecular polysaccharide derived from the cyanobacterium Aphanothece sacrum, has a very high molecular weight that exceeds 10⁷ g/mol and water-superabsorbent capacity. Recently, we demonstrated that sacran exerts anti-inflammatory activity by ameliorating the skin barrier function in patients with atopic dermatitis. In this study, to develop and characterize sacran hydrogel films (Sac-HGFs) for wound dressing materials, we prepared a physically crosslinked-Sac-HGFs, and evaluated their physicochemical properties, cytotoxicity, skin hydration and wound healing ability. Additionally, we encapsulated curcumin, as a model drug for wound healing, into Sac-HGFs by complexation with 2-hydroxypropyl-γ-cyclodextrin (HP-γ-CyD), and investigated their potential for wound dressing application. Sac-HGF has potentially good properties for wound dressing application, due to not only the moisturizing effect but also the anti-inflammatory effect of sacran. Additionally, Sac-HGF has the potential to deliver water soluble complex of curcumin/HP-γ-CyD at the wound site and thereby promote wound healing. These findings may be useful information for preparation of wound dressing materials using sacran, CyDs and drugs.