Research On Preparation And Characteristics Of Bacterial Cellulose-based Mesh For Hernia

Abdominal hernia is one of the most common surgical diseases, with high morbidity. Asreported, the number of hernia patients increased by20million per year in the world. In Cina,there are200-400million new patients every year,90%of patients are inguinalhernia. Currently, laparoscopic hernia repair surgery, the most effective treatment, graduallyapplied in clinic because of its unique advantages. However, the postoperative infectionoccurred and become a serious problem. Only a few artificial mesh materials with high pricecan be used for laparoscopic repair surgery. Therefore, development of a new material withbetter performance and the independent intellectual property is of great significance.Bacterial cellulose, a widely used nano-biomaterial, has meticulous three-dimensionalnetwork structure, excellent air permeability, high tensile strength and goodbiocompatibility. Collagen is a most importance constituent of the animal body, which hasincomparable biocompatibility and bioactivity and contains cell recongnition factors such asRGD peptides. Quaternized ammonium chitosan–a natural antibacterial agent has goodbiocompatibility and antibacterial ability against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcusaureus. In this study, we developed a new artificial mesh and modified bacterial cellulose withcollagen and hydroxypropyl trimethyl quaternary ammonium chitosan, which has excellentbiocompatibility, bioactivity and antibacterial properties.First of all, we prepared BC/COL composites by the solution impregnation method andEDC/NHS chemical crosslinking. The results of SEM and FTIR showed that collagensuccessfully incorporats into the BC network and the distribution of collagen in BC/COLcomposite material is uniform. We also observed the concentration of collagen solution andthe immersion time affect the content of collagen in the composite. After immersed in0.25%collagen solution for24h, the content of collagen in BC/COL composite is highest, whichcould be above13%. The BC/COL composite could reach water equilibrium state in15minutes and the volume (thickness) of composite has no changeless. Compared to that of pureBC, the tensile strength of BC/COL decreases, the elongation reached up to30%issignificantly improved.But compared with the natural abdominal wall, the elastic deformationability of the BC/COL composite was still neededto be improved. Furthermore, we prepared BBC-H with different HACC contents by solutionimpregnation in order to improve the antibacterial activity of the composite. The results ofSEM, FT-IR and Zeta potential showed that HACC was successfully incorporated intoBC/COL composite. Three kinds of BCC-H materials (BCC-0.25H, BCC-0.5H, BCC-1.0H)could reach to water equilibrium in a short period of time (within30min). Compared withBCC, the equilibrium moisture content of these three materials had improved significantly.The volume of BCC-0.25H and BCC-0.5H have changed a little under water equilibrium state,but BCC-1.0H was largely expanded. The elongation and tensile strength of BCC-H weresignificantly changed after incorporating HACC into BC/COL composite. With increasing ofHACC solution concentration, the elongation of BCC-H samples increased but the tensilestrength decreased. Compared with pure BC, the BC/COL composite could absorb morebacteria. After incorporated with HACC, the BCC-H composite exhibit good antibacterialactivity against E.coli and S.aureus. For example, the of BCC-1.0H composite could kill99.8%E.coli and98.9%S.aureus.The result of in vitro test with L929cells showed that pure BC, BC/COL and BCC-Hcomposite were basically nontoxic, and HSF cells cultured on surface of BC/COL presenthigh cell viability, adhesion, growth and proliferation,could be adhesion, proliferate betterthan on surface of three BCC-H materials (BCC-0.25H, BCC-0.5H, BCC-1.0H). However, nosignificant difference of cell morphotogy was observed. The number of cells on the BCC-Hmaterial was decreased during increasing the HACC content, which indicates that the BCC-Hmaterial with a high concentration HACC presents a little cytotoxicity.