Presently, notwithstanding the progress regarding wound-healing management, the treatment of the majority of skin lesions still represents a serious challenge for biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Thus, the attention of the researchers has turned to the development of novel materials based on cellulose derivatives. Cellulose derivatives are semi-synthetic biopolymers, which exhibit high solubility in water and represent an advantageous alternative to water-insoluble cellulose. These biopolymers possess excellent properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, sustainability, non-toxicity, non-immunogenicity, thermo-gelling behavior, mechanical strength, abundance, low costs, antibacterial effect, and high hydrophilicity. They have an efficient ability to absorb and retain a large quantity of wound exudates in the interstitial sites of their networks and can maintain optimal local moisture. Cellulose derivatives also represent a proper scaffold to incorporate various bioactive agents with beneficial therapeutic effects on skin tissue restoration. Due to these suitable and versatile characteristics, cellulose derivatives are attractive and captivating materials for wound-healing applications. This review presents an extensive overview of recent research regarding promising cellulose derivatives-based materials for the development of multiple biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, such as wound dressings, drug delivery devices, and tissue engineering.

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In this paper, the synthesis and characterization of novel cisplatin-loaded collagen (COLL)/hydroxyapatite (HA) composite materials are presented. The composite materials were designed to obtain a COLL: HA weight ratio close to the bone composition. The content of embedded cisplatin was chosen to assure a concentration of cisplatin of 6 and 10 μM, respectively, into the culture media used in cell culture experiments. These cisplatin delivery systems were characterized by determining the physico-chemical properties of the composite material, the drug release process as well as their biological activity. Based on the in vitro data that showed the cytotoxic, anti-proliferative and anti-invasive activities of these multifunctional systems on G292 osteosarcoma cells in dependence on the cisplatin concentration released in culture medium, we conclude that the newly developed COLL/HA-cisplatin drug delivery system could be a feasible approach for locoregional chemotherapy of bone cancer.

Superporous materials based on two proteins, collagen and sericin were synthesized by freeze-drying considering various ratios between the two proteins. To evaluate the influence of sericin content on the structure/properties relationship, the obtained scaffolds were further characterized using spectroscopic analysis, thermal, and mechanical techniques. Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the morphological structure of the scaffolds and the swelling properties as well as the stability of the scaffolds were also assessed.

Cartilage tissue engineering (CTE) applications are focused towards the use of implantable biohybrids consisting of biodegradable scaffolds combined with in vitro cultured cells. Hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) were identified as the most potent prochondrogenic factors used to design new biomaterials for CTE, while human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) were proved to display high chondrogenic potential. In this context, our aim was not only to build novel 3D porous scaffolds based on natural compounds but also to evaluate their in vitro biological performances. Therefore, for prospective CTE, collagen-sericin (Coll-SS) scaffolds improved with HA (5% or 10%) and CS (5% or 10%) were used as temporary physical supports for ASCs and were analyzed in terms of structural, thermal, morphological, and swelling properties and cytotoxic potential. To complete biocompatibility data, ASCs viability and proliferation potential were also assessed. Our studies revealed that Coll-SS hydrogels improved with 10% HA and 5% CS displayed the best biological performances in terms of cell viability, proliferation, morphology, and distribution. Thus, further work will address a novel 3D system including both HA 10% and CS 5% glycoproteins, which will probably be exposed to prochondrogenic conditions in order to assess its potential use in CTE applications.