Produção e avaliação de membrana de celulose bacteriana contendo vitamina C com atividade proliferativa

Abstract

Burns are among the main global traumas, being associated with high rates of infection and cicatricial complications, which requires advanced tissue regeneration therapies, such as the use of membranes made from cellulose biopolymers. In this context, the present research aimed to develop membranes based on bacterial cellulose incorporated or not with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), as well as the evaluation of their proliferative activities on fibroblast cells (NIH3T3), aiming its potential use in biomedical applications aimed at tissue engineering. The cellulosic biomass was obtained from industrial waste of fermentation process of beverage production. The preparation of the membrane was made by the process of crushing and forming a film with 0.5 cm thickness. The membranes were dried in an air circulation oven at 28oC for 72 hours for the membrane without ascorbic acid and 168 hours for the membrane with ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid was incorporated to the membrane by direct addition after the biomass was crushed, in a concentration of 10% (m/m). The experimental procedure of characterization by FTIR spectroscopy aimed to verify possible interactions between ascorbic acid and the membrane. The analysis showed that although the acid was present in the membrane, it did not react with its surface. Characterization by scanning electron microscopy was performed in order to demonstrate the morphology of these membranes, and the technique identified a homogeneous surface with the presence of ascorbic acid on the membrane surface. The MTT cytotoxicity test resulted in proliferative activity of NIH3T3 cells in the presence of these membranes at 24 and 48 hours. Similar results were obtained with both crystal violet and DAPI staining assays, where high viability and cell adhesion were observed. The data from this study indicate that bacterial cellulose membranes, especially those with ascorbic acid incorporation, are promising for applications in the biomedical field, especially as cell regeneration agents.