Abstract

Curcumin is a naturally derived active agent of the perennial herb Curcuma longa with anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant and wound healing properties. Because curcumin has very low aqueous solubility and quick degradation, its use is difficult. Incorporation of curcumin nanoparticles (CNs) into a biocompatible scaffold conquers this difficulty and improves the topical drug delivery and therapeutic efficacy of curcumin. In this study, the authors synthesized and characterized three scaffolds made with CNs and using biocompatible polymers, namely, collagen (C) and chitosan (Ch), with ratios of 2:1 (C2Ch1), 1:1 (C1Ch1) and 1:2 (C1Ch2). Then, the scaffolds were applied as wound dressing to enhance the cutaneous wound healing. Since C1Ch2 and CN-incorporated C1Ch2 (CN-C1Ch2) scaffolds demonstrated the best physicochemical characteristics, these samples were used for further biological evaluations through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide detection of viable cells and evaluation of wound healing activity by excision wound model using male Wistar rats. The in vivo and in vitro wound healing studies presented a greater closure of wounds with enhanced histological parameters in the wounds treated with CN-C1Ch2 scaffolds compared to the other samples. The obtained results indicated that the CN-incorporated C1Ch2 scaffolds could significantly improve the wound healing activity.