Chitosan: A potential therapeutic dressing material for wound healing

Abstract

A wide variety of polymers have been used over decades for the preparation of dressing materials for wound healing applications. But the dressing materials based on polysaccharides such as chitosan (CS) have received tremendous attention of the worldwide researchers as a consequence of its important properties like anti-infectional activity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, nontoxicity to mention a few. CS helps in every phase of wound healing such as acting as barrier against microbes, absorbing exudates, accelerates the infiltration of inflammatory cells like neutrophils and helps in healing without scar formation. A reason behind the popularity of CS is that not only it can easily be processed as gels, films, fibers, and scaffolds but also can be blended with natural as well as synthetic polymers to reduce price and improve properties like mechanical, wettability, gas permeability, and handling. Apart from natural and synthetic polymers, CS is also blended with nanoparticles and growth factors to which it shows better antibacterial activity and reduce time span for wound healing. The present chapter aims to focus on feasibility of combining natural polymers, synthetic polymers, nanoparticles, and growth factors with CS for the preparation of wound dressings as basic healthcare materials for regenerative medicine.