Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle (when dry), flavorless food derived from collagenobtained from various animal raw materials. It is commonly used as a gellingagent in food, pharmaceutical drugs, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar way are called "gelatinous". Gelatin is an irreversibly hydrolyzed form of collagen, wherein the hydrolysis results in the reduction of protein fibrils into smaller peptides, which will have broad molecular weight ranges associated with physical and chemical methods of denaturation, based on the process of hydrolysis. It is a biocompatible polymer and used for many biomedical applications including wound dressing with hemostatic …show more content…
Two important factors which contribute to the delayed healing of diabetic wounds are infection and over expression of Matrix Metalloprotease (MMPs). The MMPs are a set of proteases which play a major role in extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in case of normal wound healing. However when over expressed these MMPs tend to delay the wound healing process by degrading the newly formed ECM. It is observed that the MMPs are highly over expressed in case of diabetic wounds. Alendronate is a bisphosphonate molecule that is capable of binding to divalent ions like Zn2+, Ca2+. These divalent ions are the major cofactors for MMP activity. Thereby the binding of these divalent ions by alendronate will inhibit the activity of the over expressed MMPs and thereby enable in the faster healing of chronic diabetic wounds.
2. How can the alendronate and antimicrobial loaded bilayer bandage system will help in treatment of chronic diabetic wounds? The bi-layer bandage system comprises of 2 layers, the bottom layer comprises of a chitosan-Hyaluronic acid (HA) matrix containing antimicrobial agents like bacitracin and benzalkonium chloride and the top layer comprises of a chitosan matrix containing alendronate. The bottom layer will be designed in such a way that the antimicrobials get released from the matrix within a period of 3 days and eliminate the infection completely within this period. From the top layer alendronate will be released in a sustained manner to inhibit the protease activity of the over expressed MMPs.
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