Gelatin-Cerium Oxide Nanocomposite for Enhanced Excisional Wound Healing

Researchers are keen on formulating composites blending biomacromolecules with functional nanoparticles to achieve greater efficacy to expedite the wound healing process. In the present work, we have engineered a genipin cross-linked gelatin hydrogel composite containing optimized concentration of cerium oxide nanoparticles (G-ONp) for the purpose of wound healing. The concentration of cerium oxide nanoparticles in G-ONp has been optimized to be 250 μg/mL, which shows more than 80% cell viability in cytotoxicity study. X-ray diffractogram of ONp displays characteristic lattice planes of cubic fluorite structure, and transmission electron micrograph reveals that the particles are sized between 2.5-6.5 nm. The genipin dimeric cross-linkage in G-ONp has been confirmed by UV-vis peak at 603 nm. Swelling ratio of G-ONp (25.3 ± 1.2) has been found to be three-fold to that of native gelatin (9.2 ± 1.4). As far as pore size distribution is concerned, lyophilized sponges of gelatin and G-ONp had microsized pores in the range of 1-140 μm and 1-19 μm, respectively, and hydrogels of the same determined by thermoporometry had nanosized pores in the range of 7-48 nm and 7-24 nm, respectively. The in vivo wound healing and histological examination have revealed that G-ONp treated rat group has shown more infiltration of leukocytes and larger deposition of collagen when compared to gelatin and control groups and has healed the wound in 12 days. These findings suggest that the composite of G-ONp is superior to gelatin in increasing wound healing and can be envisaged as a wound dressing material in future.