Team:TU Darmstadt/project/hydrogel
ChiTUcare
The Hydrogels
ABSTRACT: We manufactured different types of chitosan hydrogels, each designed for a proper medical use. We choose to use chitosan as scaffold material due to its antimicrobial and non-toxic properties. We reached to manufacture low-cost and easy to produce hydrogels for every laboratory worldwide
Replace adhesive bandages for patients
We want to detect pathogenic bacteria visually in wounds, which is not possible with standard adhesive bandages. If you want to monitor the wound healing process you would have to remove the common bandages and take samples and then check these samples for pathogenic bacteria in a specialized laboratory, a long time and expensive process. A hydrogel is characterized by containing water, forms a solid three-dimensional network structures and is water insoluble. Most Hydrogels could swell in aqueous solutions, for our purpose as a wound bandage it is possible to absorb some of the wound fluid. The hydrogels could airtight the affected wounds and therefore helps the healing process. Our hydrogels are designed for patients with burns or as a special health care product for patients with bad wound healing, for example diabetes patients. We can deliver an optimal wound healing and monitoring bandage for these affected patients without the need to disrupt the healing process.
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During the swelling it could absorb the fluid of ulcer as well as for strong exuding wounds
Why use our hydrogels?
The hydrogel(s) we wanted to create are due to their compounds not toxic, biodegradable, biocompatible, while at the same time having a low-cost and easy to manufacturing processes. They are easy to produce in different sizes. While being flexible they keep their stability, which makes it comfortable for patients to wear, and easy to manufacture, handle and apply on patients. We chose the hemostatic chitosan due to its reported intrinsic antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Chitosan as wound dressing has scar free, excellent wound heal and care effects. The antiallergic chitosan is an ideal scaffold material to manufacture different types of hydrogels, salves, pastes or solid bandages. Besides its great described antimicrobial characteristics, it has a skin cooling effects. Most chitosan hydrogel topical wound dressings are formed using an expensive or toxic crosslinking agent, we aimed not to use any of these compounds. We could help preventing or treat wound infections of any degree of burns.
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The pH-level of some of our hydrogels are easy to regulate by rinsing it with the proper pH-level solution.
Human epitel could heal along the chitosan matrix, no wound distance grid is necessary. The moisture provided by our hydrogels could also help the wound healing process
Production of our chitosan-hydrogels
We were focused to work with basic laboratory equipment. For the preparation of chitosan hydrogels, an acidic environment is usually required to dissolve chitosan. We used in our manufacturing processes chitosan with a high molecular weight (310000-375000 Da) and a deacetylated patter of >75%. It took several days to figure out the composition of the specific hydrogel(s) we wanted to use for different potential medical applications. A long time continuous mechanical stirring (6 hours) is required to solve the chitosan in the acetic acid-deionized water solution. Under continuous pH measurement it was mechanically stirred constantly for 12 hours. This solution needs to rest for at least 12 hours for further processing. To change a certain pH-level we added more or less acetic acid at the chitosan solving step.
Chitosan Hydrogel solidified in Alginate-Quercetin solution
The alginate/quercetin solution was poured into a mold and then liquid-friezed. The 2% chitosan solution was then poured onto it and streaked out to the certain thickness, covered with the alginate/quercetin solution, placed into the 37° incubator for 24 hours.
After the solidification process the arosed solid hydrogel was rinsed with ultrapure water. Placed into an aqueous solution it will swell massively after time.
The bandages were saturated with the liquid in which it was immersed. Our manufactured hydrogel has a degree of swelling of 800.
Chitosan Hydrogel with high pH-level
Manufacturing process of our chitosan hydrogel with a high pH-level was performed by rinsing the 2% chitosan solution with a defined NaOH solution with the desired pH-level.
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