CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The development of biomaterials has attracted great attention for wound healing and medical purposes. Dexamethasone phosphate is a widely used anti-inflammatory drug. To provide a proper support to this anti-inflammatory agent a protein scaffold was tested. Collagen is a well-characterized protein used in the biomedical field because of its biological origin, biodegradability, biocompatibility and ease of obtention. SEM images show collagen typical fibrillar network and their striation. Dexamethasone phosphate release from the collagen hydrogel dressing is described by a biphasic model probably due to encapsulation in microdomains. The first plateau is reached at 6 hours with 60% of total dexamethasone phosphate content release and the second plateau is reached at 48 hours with 100% of total dexamethasone release due to collagenase proteolytic action. A diminish in weight is seen due to collagenase action with a loss of 50% of its initial weight at 24 hours and a complete loss of weight at 48 hours. DSC profile, FTIR spectra and biphasic kinetics release showed that the main interactions between the material and the drug are electrostatic and intrapore. DSC profile showed no difference between the two hydrogels. FTIR spectra for collagen-dexamethasone showed typical absorption bands in collagen. To identify the drug-polymer interaction, a peak at 890 cm-1 (NH2 wagging) disappearance was observed due to amine and phosphate electrostatic interaction. Collagen-dexamethasone hydrogel showed good biocompatibility with MDBK cell line and a swelling ratio of 300%. High swelling ratio and a cell survival of near 100% at 24 hours and 190% growth at 48 hours lead us to believe this material has clear advantages for biomedical applications. To summarize, a novel biocompatible hydrogel for tissue engineering was synthesized.