Research Article
In Vitro Studies of Bacterial Cellulose and
Magnetic Nanoparticles Smart Nanocomposites for
Efficient Chronic Wounds Healing
Bianca Galateanu,
1,2
Mihaela-Cristina Bunea,
3
Paul Stanescu,
3
Eugenia Vasile,
4
Angela Casarica,
5
Horia Iovu,
3
Anca Hermenean,
2
Catalin Zaharia,
3
and Marieta Costache
1
1
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bucharest, 91-95 Splaiul Independentei, 050095 Bucharest, Romania
2
Institute of Life Sciences, Vasile Goldis Western University of Arad, 86 Rebreanu, 310414 Arad, Romania
3
Advanced Polymer Materials Group, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Gh. Polizu Street, 011061 Bucharest, Romania
4
Department of Oxide Materials and Nanomaterials, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science,
University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Gh. Polizu Street, 011061 Bucharest, Romania
5
National Institute for Chemical Pharmaceutical Research and Development, 112 Calea Vitan, 031299 Bucharest, Romania
Correspondence should be addressed to Catalin Zaharia; zaharia.catalin@gmail.com
Received 20 February 2015; Revised 18 April 2015; Accepted 26 April 2015
Academic Editor: Long Bi
Copyright © 2015 Bianca Galateanu et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Te quality of life of patients with chronic wounds can be extremely poor and, therefore, over the past decades, great eforts have
been made to develop efcient strategies to improve the healing process and the social impact associated with these conditions.
Cell based therapy, as a modern tissue engineering strategy, involves the design of 3D cell-scafold bioconstructs obtained by
preseeding drug loaded scafolds with undiferentiated cells in order to achieve in situ functional de novo tissue. Tis paper reports
on the development of bionanocomposites based on bacterial cellulose and magnetic nanoparticles (magnetite) for efcient chronic
wounds healing. Composites were obtained directly in the cellulose bacterial culture medium by dispersing various amounts of
magnetite nanoparticles during the biosynthesis process. Afer purifcation and drying, the membranes were characterized by
Raman spectroscopy and X-ray difraction to reveal the presence of magnetite within the bacterial cellulose matrix. Morphological
investigation was employed through SEM and TEM analyses on bionanocomposites. Te biocompatibility of these innovative
materials was studied in relation to human adipose derived stem cells in terms of cellular morphology, viability, and proliferation
as well as scafolds cytotoxic potential.
1. Introduction
Skin is the largest organ in the body and, among other critical
roles, it serves as an impermeable insulator layer against the
environmental microorganisms and prevents dehydration.
Loss of skin integrity afer injury, surgery, or illness may result
in physiologic imbalance and ultimately in signifcant disabil-
ity or even death. Wound healing is a complex physiological
process that is highly orchestrated by various interrelated
factors. Te impaired healing of acute cutaneous wounds
involves multiple complex pathophysiological mechanisms
and is mainly associated with chronic pathologies such as
diabetes, cancer, and immunodefciency [1]. Te quality
of life of patients with chronic wounds can be extremely
poor, thus adding indirect costs to the burden of cutaneous
ulcers. Terefore, over the past three decades, great eforts
have been made to understand the pathobiology of chronic
wounds [2] and to develop efcient strategies to improve
the healing process and the social impact associated with
these conditions. Consequently, traditional wound healing
agents have been largely replaced for chronic wounds by the
advanced dressings because topical liquid (povidone-iodine
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Stem Cells International
Volume 2015, Article ID 195096, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/195096