Chitosan/alginate hydrogels containing Alpha-tocopherol for wound healing in rat model

Abstract The skin tissue engineering has emerged as an alternative to conventional treatment of skin injuries. Three-dimensional (3D) hydrogels-based scaffolds are promising and widely used for this purpose. Considering the high performance of alginate, chitosan and Alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) in the skin tissue engineering, we evaluate the potential of this vitamin E-loaded hydrogel for the healing of the dorsal skin injury in a rat model. In this research, porous cross-linked Chit/Alg hydrogels containing Alpha-tocopherol (Vitamin E) were fabricated and their morphology, swelling properties, weight loss, hemo- and cytocompatibility were evaluated. Finally, the therapeutic function of the developed hydrogels was studied in the full-thickness dermal wound model. Our data showed that the produced hydrogel was highly porous, the porosity of 89.2 ± 12.5%, with the interconnected pores. Weight loss assessment showed that the prepared hydrogel is biodegradable with the weight loss percentage of about 80% in 14 days. Also, the results showed that the prepared hydrogel-based dressings had the higher wound closure than the gauze-treated wound (the control) and the highest wound closure percentage was obtained with the Chit/Alg/400 IU Vit E group. All in all, this study suggests that 3D Chit/Alg hydrogels with 400 IU Vit E can be used to treat the skin injuries in the clinic.