Pullulan-Based Hydrogels in Wound Healing and Skin Tissue Engineering Applications: A Review

Abstract

Wound healing is a complex process of overlapping phases with the primary aim of the creation of new tissues and restoring their anatomical functions. Wound dressings are fabricated to protect the wound and accelerate the healing process. Biomaterials used to design dressing of wounds could be natural or synthetic as well as the combination of both materials. Polysaccharide polymers have been used to fabricate wound dressings. The applications of biopolymers, such as chitin, gelatin, pullulan, and chitosan, have greatly expanded in the biomedical field due to their non-toxic, antibacterial, biocompatible, hemostatic, and nonimmunogenic properties. Most of these polymers have been used in the form of foams, films, sponges, and fibers in drug carrier devices, skin tissue scaffolds, and wound dressings. Currently, special focus has been directed towards the fabrication of wound dressings based on synthesized hydrogels using natural polymers. The high-water retention capacity of hydrogels makes them potent candidates for wound dressings as they provide a moist environment in the wound and remove excess wound fluid, thereby accelerating wound healing. The incorporation of pullulan with different, naturally occurring polymers, such as chitosan, in wound dressings is currently attracting much attention due to the antimicrobial, antioxidant and nonimmunogenic properties. Despite the valuable properties of pullulan, it also has some limitations, such as poor mechanical properties and high cost. However, these properties are improved by blending it with different polymers. Additionally, more investigations are required to obtain pullulan derivatives with suitable properties in high quality wound dressings and tissue engineering applications. This review summarizes the properties and wound dressing applications of naturally occurring pullulan, then examines it in combination with other biocompatible polymers, such chitosan and gelatin, and discusses the facile approaches for oxidative modification of pullulan.

Diversity of Bioinspired Hydrogels: From Structure to Applications

“…Pullulan Pullulan (PULL), an exopolysaccharide produced by certain fungi, such as A basidium pullulans, presents in its structure maltotriose units connected through α-(1 glycosidic bonds, the consecutive maltotriose units being linked to each other by α-(1 glycosidic bonds (Figure 17). Due to its unique properties, such as chain flexibility, solubility in water, high hesion to biological surfaces, ability to form transparent, thin edible films, biocom bility, and biodegradability, it is extensively used as a food ingredient, in packagin cosmetics or dermatocosmetics, as a pharmaceutical excipient for protein stabilizatio biomedical applications as hydrogels for drug delivery systems, for wound healing tissue engineering applications, and for wastewater remediation [262][263][264][265][266][267][268].…”

Review on applications of Pullulan in bone tissue engineering: Blends and composites with natural and synthetic polymers

“…32 PTX and CA4 result in inevitable and severe toxins, including hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and neurotoxicity, because they lack tumor-targeted delivery. 33 Therefore, new transferors for PTX and CA4 are needed to ease intracellular transport and enhance bioavailability.…”

Silver nanoparticle reinforced polylactic acid and gelatin composite films for advanced wound dressing

“…Therefore, G is generally incorporated with other materials to improve its mechanical strength, thermal and biological stability. 18,19 Conversely, aliphatic polyester, PLA, is obtained from renewable resources such as corn, sugar beets, potato starch, cheese, and whey. It is a hydrophobic biodegradable thermoplastic polymer which is very brittle.…”