IMEDTEX

About the project

We propose a new generation of chronic wound dressings with enhanced healing rates and protection of the lesion from outside pathogens. Medical grade cloth will be surface engineered on the side in contact with air, to become superhydrophobic and antimicrobial via thin film coating with black ZnO (nonstoichiometric, vacancy, defect containing ZnO), synthesized by Pulsed Laser Deposition.We showed in a previous research that black ZnO is both superhydrophobic and antibacterial/antifungal. The inner side of dressings, in contact with the wound, will be covered by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation with a hydrophilic mixture consisting of antibiotics, epithelial growth factors and analgesic. Linezolid/dicloxacillin/neomycin will be used as antibiotics with efficiency against both Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria, hyaluronic acid as growth factor in tissue reconstruction and a neuropathic agent with analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. The novelty of the Project comes from the use of laser deposition techniques which can be tuned to synthesize both organic and inorganic adherent coatings with precise control of thickness and minimal consumption of precursors.
The correlation between coating’s properties of interest and their morphology or composition will be made after thorough tests by atomic force and scanning electron microscopy, profilometry, wettability assessment, Xray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
ZnO films antimicrobial properties will be studied against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria (bactericide effect, antibiofilm assessment). The biocompatibility and the efficiency of healing factors in form of thin films will be studied in vitro on epithelial lines of cells.