[Frontiers in Bioscience E2, 1123-1133, June 1, 2010]

Amphiphilic copolymers for liquid bandage application studies

Zhiqi Zhang1, Anthony Conway2, Ann Beal Salamone2, Eric T. Crumpler1, Xueji Zhang3,4, Chen-zhong Li1

1Nanobioengineering/Bioelectronics Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, 10555 W. Flagler St., Miami, Florida 33174, USA, 2Rochal Industries LLP, 12719 Cranes Mill, San Antonio, TX 78230, USA, 3Institue of Biomedicine and Bioengineering, University of Science and Technology, Beijing, Beijing 100083, P.R. China,4Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., CHE 205A, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA

TABLE OF CONOTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Material and methods
3.1. Materials
3.2. Polymer synthesis and polymer formulation preparation
3.2.1. Polymer I (poly (TRIS-co-NIPAM)), formulation 1
3.2.2. Polymer II (Poly (TRIS-co-NIPAM-co-DFHA)), formulation 3
3.2.3. 3.2.3. Polymer III (Poly (TRIS-co-NVP)), formulation 4
3.2.4. Polymer Formulation 6
3.3. 1H NMR spectroscopy and molecular weight determination
3.4. Polymer characterization
3.5. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging
3.6. Cell culture and sample plate preparation
3.7. SRB cell viability assay
3.8. Statistical analysis
4. Results
4.1. Cell viability SRB analysis
4.2. Polymer characterizations
5. Discussion
5.1. Polymer characterizations
5.2. Fixation method optimization
5.3. Cell viability
6. Conclusions
7. Acknowledgement
8. References

1. ABSTRACT

This research pertains to a new class of liquid bandage polymers which are promising for assisting advanced wound healing by serving as substrates to promote cell viability and proliferation. Amphiphilic nitrogen-containing polymer poly (3-methacryloyloxypropyltris (trimethylsiloxy)silane-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) (poly (TRIS-co-NIPAM)) was synthesized and investigated with further comparison to several different wound care polymers including commercialized 3M Nexcare™ No Sting Liquid Bandage. Cell viability on different polymers was tested on fetal human skin fibroblasts (HSFs) and neonatal human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs). Test results were quantified by Sulforhodamine B (SRB) in vitro cytotoxicity assay. It is demonstrated that both HSFs and HEKs survive better on the poly (TRIS-co-NIPAM) film as the cell seeding substrate compared to other candidate polymer formulations, as well as to the commercial 3M No Sting Liquid Bandage polymer. Thus we conclude that wound healing could be accelerated by this new class of liquid bandage polymer, particularly for early-stage wounds due to a cell substrating effect.