The implantation of biomaterials may elicit a host response to this foreign body, and the magnitude of that reaction depends on the host and on the implanted material. The aim of this study was to compare the inflammatory response induced by the implantation of starch-based (SPCL) scaffolds in two implantation rat models: subcutaneous (SC) and intramuscular (IM). Moreover, two methodologies, wet spinning (WS) and fibre-bonding (FB), were used to prepare the scaffolds. The short-term inflammatory/immune host reaction was assessed by SC and IM implantations in rats after 1 and 2 weeks, and the long-term host response was addressed after 8 and 12 weeks of SC implantation of both types of SPCL scaffolds in rats. After each time period, the scaffolds, surrounding tissue and nearby lymph nodes were explanted, and used for histological analysis and molecular biology evaluation. The results showed that SPCL-WS scaffolds seem to induce a slight lower inflammatory/immune reaction in both types of implantation models. Nonetheless, comparing the two models, the IM implantation resulted in a slightly higher inflammatory response than the SC implantation with early activation of the lymph nodes. The overall data suggests a good integration of the materials in the host, independently of the tissue location with a normal progress of the reaction for all the conditions.

Wound management represents a major clinical challenge on what concerns healing enhancement and pain control. The selection of an appropriate dressing plays an important role in both recovery and esthetic appearance of the regenerated tissue. Despite the wide range of available dressings, the progress in the wound care market relies on the increasing interest in using natural-based biomedical products. Herein, a rat wounddressing model of partial-thickness skin wounds was used to study newly developed chitosan/soy (cht/soy)-based membranes as wound-dressing materials. Healing and repair of nondressed, cht/soy membrane-dressed, and Epigard Ò -dressed wounds were followed macroscopically and histologically for 1 and 2 weeks. cht/soy membranes performed better than the controls, promoting a faster wound repair. Re-epithelialization, observed 1 week after wounding, was followed by cornification of the outermost epidermal layer at the second week of dressing, indicating repair of the wounded tissue. The use of this rodent model, although in impaired healing conditions, may enclose some drawbacks regarding the inevitable wound contraction. Moreover, being the main purpose the evaluation of cht/soy-based membranes' performance in the absence of growth factors, the choice of a clinically relevant positive control was limited to a polymeric mesh, without any growth factor influencing skin healing/repair, Epigard. These new cht/soy membranes possess the desired features regarding healing/repair stimulation, ease of handling, and final esthetic appearance-thus, valuable properties for wound dressings.