Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 115 (2014) 244–252 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces jo ur nal ho me p ag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/colsurfb Antibacterial and wound healing analysis of gelatin/zeolite scaffolds Neethu Ninan a,b,∗ , Muthunarayanan Muthiah c , Nur Aliza Bt.Yahaya d , In-Kyu Park c , Anne Elain a , Tin Wui Wong d , Sabu Thomas b , Yves Grohens a a Université de Bretagne Sud, Laboratoire Ingénierie des Matériaux de Bretagne, BP 92116, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France b Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarsini Hills PO, Kottayam 686 560, Kerala, India c Department of Biomedical Science and BK21 PLUS Center for Creative Biomedical Scientists, Chonnam National University Medical School, 160 Baekseo-ro, Gwangju 501-746, Republic of Korea d Non-Destructive Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 42300 Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 29 July 2013 Received in revised form 25 November 2013 Accepted 26 November 2013 Available online 4 December 2013 Keywords: Gelatin Copper activated faujasite Anti-bacterial Wound healing Animal studies Fibroblast a b s t r a c t In this article, gelatin/copper activated faujasites (CAF) composite scaffolds were fabricated by lyophili- sation technique for promoting partial thickness wound healing. The optimised scaffold with 0.5% (w/w) of CAF, G (0.5%), demonstrated pore size in the range of 10–350 m. Agar disc diffusion tests veriﬁed the antibacterial role of G (0.5%) and further supported that bacterial lysis was due to copper released from the core of CAF embedded in the gelatin matrix. The change in morphology of bacteria as a function of CAF content in gelatin scaffold was studied using SEM analysis. The confocal images revealed the increase in mortality rate of bacteria with increase in concentration of incorporated CAF in gelatin matrix. Proﬁcient oxygen supply to needy cells is a continuing hurdle faced by tissue engineering scaffolds. The dissolved oxygen measurements revealed that CAF embedded in the scaffold were capable of increasing oxygen supply and thereby promote cell proliferation. Also, G (0.5%) exhibited highest cell viability on NIH 3T3 ﬁbroblast cells which was mainly attributed to the highly porous architecture and its ability to enhance oxygen supply to cells. In vivo studies conducted on Sprague Dawley rats revealed the ability of G (0.5%) to promote skin regeneration in 20 days. Thus, the obtained data suggest that G (0.5%) is an ideal candidate for wound healing applications. Crown Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Wound infections are caused due to invasion of injured tissues by microorganisms, that trigger body’s immune system, induce inﬂammation, tissue damage and impede the healing process [1]. Most cases of infected wounds arise due to bacteria, orig- inating either from the skin or external environment [2]. Skin contains normal ﬂora of bacteria which are harmless. When it is subjected to injury, this protective barrier will be disrupted and the normal ﬂora will then colonise the wounded site, inducing inﬂammation and tissue damage, thereby causing serious local and systemic complications [3]. One of the approaches for treating bacterial infected wounds is the use of biocompatible scaffolds incorporated with antibacterial agents [4]. Several polymers are used for the fabrication of such scaffolds including pectin ∗ Corresponding author at: Université de Bretagne-Sud, Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des MATériaux de Bretagne (LIMatB), Centre de Recherche Christiaan Huygens, Rue de St Maudé – BP 92116, Bureau 32 bis, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France. Tel.: +33 751464109/+91 0484 2557031; fax: +33 02 97 87 45 19. E-mail address: neethuninan85@yahoo.co.in (N. Ninan). [5], chitin [6], chitosan [7], alginate [8], collagen [9], gelatin [10], keratin [11], polyurethane [12], polycaprolactone [13], polyacrylonitrile [14], polyethylene [15] and silicon rubber [16]. Among these, gelatin is chosen as a suitable matrix due to its natural abundance, biocompatibility, biodegradability and non- immunogenicity [17]. It is a protein obtained by partial hydrolysis of collagen. It melts into liquid when heated and gets solidiﬁed when cooled [18]. Literature reports the wide use of gelatin in preparing scaffolds with antibacterial properties like electrospun gelatin ﬁbre mats containing silver nanoparticles [19], keratin- gelatin composites [20], chitosan-gelatin/nanohydroxyapatite scaffold [21], electrospun chitosan/gelatin nanoﬁbers containing silver nanoparticles [22], gelatin/hydroxyapatite foams [23], nanosilver/gelatin/carboxymethyl chitosan hydrogel [24], etc. We prepared scaffolds with antibacterial properties using gelatin as the polymer matrix. Recently, inorganic minerals like clays and zeolites containing metals have achieved great signiﬁcance compared to conventional antibacterial agents. The incorporation of metallic ions within sil- icate framework allowed their controlled release and prevented concentration dependent toxicity [25]. Among the different inor- ganic materials, copper containing minerals are prominent as 0927-7765/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2013.11.048