Pectin based hydrogel dressings for better wound exudate absorption

Most recently, I was working on developing polysaccharide-protein complexes for wound care systems. It is widely accepted that hydrogels promote wound healing by providing a moist environment, which in turn enhances cell proliferation to the wound site. Building upon this premise, I started looking into natural hydrogels, such as pectin which is a plant polysaccharide.

Functionalization of pectin and subsequent crosslinking with gelatin yielded robust OP-Gel hydrogel films. To analyze exactly how good these hydrogels are in terms of water retention and wettability, a simple experiment was designed. Nonwoven cotton fabrics were dip coated with functionalized pectin-gelatin solutions, and dried in vacuum. A single droplet of dye solution was then dropped on both uncoated fabric and OP-Gel coated fabric. The difference in the fluid retention capacity was immediately apparent, as can be seen in the video. On an average, fabric coated with OP-Gel exhibited a 400% increase in the fluid retention capacity. This characteristic is particularly relevant when developing dressings for exudating and sloughing wounds. Large amounts of exudate can be easily absorbed by the OP-Gel dressing, thus providing a clean yet moist environment at the wound site.

Another point in favor of the OP-Gel dressings is that there is no compromise in the flexibility of the dressing. They are as flexible as simple cotton gauze and can follow the wound boundaries without any difficulty. Therefore, these OP-Gel dressings can be potentially considered for effective wound management, subject to cytocompatibility and wound healing evaluation.

More details on the wound healing performance of OP-Gel dressings soon!