Executive Summary : | The proposed research project is primarily involved with the synthesis and characterization of natural polysaccharides-derived biocompatible hydrogels for effective wound healing and skin tissue regeneration purposes. The proposed hydrogels are easily biodegradable and highly biocompatible, thus are suitable for other biological applications, as well. The hydrogels will be synthesized by UV-irradiation mechanism which is efficient, less time-consuming and user-friendly. These synthesized hydrogels will be further characterized by different physicochemical methods such as FTIR, XRD, TGA, sEM and several different other techniques. These hydrogels will be tested for their biocompatibility and better cellular response. For that purpose, different cell lines (such as keratinocytes, fibroblasts, epithelial, peripheral neuronal, macrophages, other immune cells etc. which are the typical constituents of healthy skin) will be grown on these hydrogels and will be assessed by different microscopic techniques. MTT assay will be performed to characterized their bio-compatibility and toxicity (if any). All these analyses will allow to select the best hydrogel to proceed for the next level of experiments. The best hydrogel will be coated with a bioactive compound FPP (Farnesyl pyrophosphate, which is an endogenous molecule and known to activate a specific ion channel TRPV3 that has a positive role in wound healing). Long term stimulation of TRPV3 is expected to stimulate keratinocytes and macrophages and other cells leading to effective wound healing. As the proposed hydrogels are expected to have network of hydrophilic groups, it will be possible to coat FPP to the best hydrogel. The release behavior of FPP from the hydrogel will be performed. The efficacy of the FPP-labelled hydrogel for skin wound (that are infected with bacteria or multidrug resistant bacteria) will be tested in vivo animal model system. For that day-dependent wound healing and bacterial clearances will be monitored. Regeneration of skin tissue will be analyzed by histo-chemistry analysis of the wound tissue. This project may allow to translate the hydrogel or s for commercial usage in future for wound healing. |