*Corresponding author: Nainika Srivastava Department of Biotechnology, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata 700107, India ISSN: 0976-3031 Research Article THE POTENTIAL OF WOUND HEALING BY MICROBIAL CELLULOSE Nainika Srivastava, Shreya Jha and Subhrojyoti Ghosh Department of Biotechnology, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata 700107, India DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijrsr.2022.1306.0295 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Microbial Cellulose refers to cellulose produced by certain strains of bacteria including Acetobacter xylinum or Gluconacetobacterxylinum. The lack of success of modern wound dressings and increased instances of non-healing skin wounds have ultimately paved the way for searching for biomaterials in wound dressing. Microbial Cellulose successfully addresses all these issues mainly due to high water holding capacity and biocompatibility. One of the major challenges in Microbial Cellulose production is its low yield in bacterial cells and thus secondary materials have been sought. This has led to increased scientific work in combining Microbial Cellulose with Nanofibers and Hydrogels. Additionally, the performance of Microbial Cellulose has been reported to be increased with the incorporation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells or using combined therapies of irradiation. The purpose of this review is to summarize all the recent advances in Microbial Cellulose as a wound-healing material either with or without other secondary materials with detailed mechanisms. Clinical performance and prospects have also been outlined. INTRODUCTION Human skin covers the entire surface of the body, which is the barrier between the human body and the outside world. It affects the environment and plays an important role in preventing pathogens from invading the human body[1]. But it is the most commonly injured part of the human body. When injured, the connective tissue is exposed, triggering a series of local cell and biochemical events that restore their integrity[2]. The first reaction after an injury is to stop bleeding. It occurs at the site of blood loss in the wound [3]. The second stage is inflammation which lasts from 24 hours to 4-6 days, beginning with the release of proteolytic enzymes and pro-inflammatory cytokines from invasive immune cells into the wound area, where these inflammatory cells are reactive oxygen species (ROS) and it protects the organisms from bacterial infections [4]. At this stage, all foreign bodies anddebris are removed from the wound bed by neutrophils and macrophages, preventing infection [5]. In addition, the release of cytokines and enzymes stimulates the growth of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, and wound exudate provides the water needed for healing [6,7]. The third stage is the proliferation stage where new granulation tissue is formed and grows in the wound area to form a new extracellular matrix. The final stage of healing is remodeling. At this stage, the composition of the matrix changes, collagen III replaces collagen I, and the tensile strength of the new tissue increases [3, 6, 8]. [Figure 1] The skin has many functions, such as protecting other organs from pathogen invasion, dehydration, mechanical impact, radiation, and chemicals. The skin also regulates body temperature and is an integral part of the sensory system, serving as a reservoir of vitamin D synthesis [9,10]. Therefore, skin damage needs to be properly treated not only to restore its appearance but also to restore its function as described above. Therefore, special attention has been paid to the development of biomaterials/structures suitable for wound care/healing[11]. The global wound care market was valued at US $ 17.49 billion in 2021. The market is projected to grow from US $ 18.51 billion in 2022 to the US $ 28.23 billion in 2029, showing a CAGR of 6.2% over the forecast period [12]. In addition, of the various commercially available wound care/biomaterials, wound dressings are the most widely used. Various forms of wound dressings have been developed, including clear bandages, medical bandages, hydrogel bandages, foam bandages, hydrophilic colloid bandages, and film bandages [13,14,15]. Wound dressings play an essential role in the healing of some types of open wounds, like chronic wounds, unless the moist, warm, and nutritious environment of the wound bed creates ideal conditions for microbial growth. Thus, the wound healing process can be hampered by bacterial colonization and Available Online at http://www.recentscientific.com International Journal of Recent Scientific Research International Journal of Recent Scientific Research Vol. 13, Issue, 06 (A), pp. 1388-1400, June, 2022 Copyright © Nainika Srivastava et al, 2022, this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.24327/IJRSR CODEN: IJRSFP (USA) Article History: Received 12 th March, 2022 Received in revised form 23 rd April, 2022 Accepted 7 th May, 2022 Published online 28 th June, 2022 Keywords: Microbial Cellulose (MC) Wound Healing Wound Dressing