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. 2009 Feb;53(2):393-400.
doi: 10.1128/AAC.00760-08. Epub 2008 Nov 17.

Chitosan acetate bandage as a topical antimicrobial dressing for infected burns

Tianhong Dai  1 , George P Tegos, Marina Burkatovskaya, Ana P Castano, Michael R Hamblin
Affiliations

Chitosan acetate bandage as a topical antimicrobial dressing for infected burns

Tianhong Dai et al. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2009 Feb.

Abstract

An engineered chitosan acetate bandage preparation (HemCon) is used as a hemostatic dressing, and its chemical structure suggests that it should also be antimicrobial. We previously showed that when a chitosan acetate bandage was applied to full-thickness excisional wounds in mice that had been infected with pathogenic bioluminescent bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, and Staphylococcus aureus), it was able to rapidly kill the bacteria and save the mice from developing fatal infections. Wound healing was also stimulated. In the present study, we asked whether a chitosan acetate bandage could act as a topical antimicrobial dressing when it was applied to third-degree burns in mice contaminated with two of these bacterial species (P. aeruginosa and P. mirabilis). Preliminary experiments established the length of burn time and the number of bacteria needed to produce fatal infections in untreated mice and established that the chitosan acetate bandage could adhere to the infected burn for up to 21 days. In the case of P. aeruginosa infections, the survival rate of mice treated with the chitosan acetate bandage was 73.3% (whereas the survival rate of mice treated with a nanocrystalline silver dressing was 27.3% [P = 0.0055] and that of untreated mice was 13.3% [P < 0.0002]). For P. mirabilis infections, the comparable survival rates were 66.7%, 62.5%, and 23.1% respectively. Quantitative bioluminescent signals showed that the chitosan acetate bandage effectively controlled the growth of bacteria in the burn and prevented the development of systemic sepsis, as shown by blood culture. These data suggest that chitosan acetate bandage is efficacious in preventing fatal burn infections.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Masson's trichrome histological sections of healthy BALB/c mouse skin (A) and mouse skin with burns produced by the application of a heated brass block for 20 s (B), 40 s (C), and 60 s (D). Successively greater channels that reach through the dermis and that allow penetration of bacteria into the burns are produced in the 40- and 60-s burns. (E to G) Photographs of representative mice with no dressing on the burn (E), a silver dressing on the burn (F), and a chitosan acetate bandage on the burn (G).
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Representative successive bioluminescence images from days 0 to 3 (at the same bit range of 3) of mice with P. aeruginosa-infected burns with no treatment, silver dressing treatment, and chitosan acetate bandage treatment. The inset of the image for day 3 with a burn with a silver dressing shows the bioluminescence signal after the dressing was removed from a dead mouse.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
(A) Time course of mean measured bioluminescence signals from mice with infected burns over days 0 to 5; (B) time course of bioluminescence signals as in panel A but corrected for optical quenching by the bandage; (C) survival curves for mice with P. aeruginosa-infected burns treated with chitosan acetate bandage (n = 15), silver dressing (n = 11), or no treatment (n = 15); (D) time courses of mean weight loss of mice over 5 days postinfection.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 4.
(A) Representative bioluminescence images (at the same bit range of 3) of P. mirabilis-infected burns with no treatment, silver dressing treatment, and chitosan acetate bandage treatment; (B) survival curves for mice with P. mirabilis-infected burns a chitosan acetate bandage treatment (n = 12), a silver dressing treatment (n = 8), and no treatment (n = 13). The survival curves were significantly different between the chitosan acetate bandage-treated or the silver dressing-treated group and the untreated-group (P < 0.0002) but not between the chitosan acetate bandage-treated group and the silver dressing-treated group (P = 0.93).
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