Lignin-Incorporated Nanogel Serving As an Antioxidant Biomaterial for Wound Healing

Lignin-Incorporated Nanogel Serving As an Antioxidant Biomaterial for Wound Healing

ACS Applied Bio Materials

10.1021/acsabm.0c00858

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c00858

Jia Xu, Jia Jia Xu, Qianyu Lin, Lu Jiang, Duoteng Zhang, Zibiao Li, Bo Ma, Chengwu Zhang, Lin Li, Dan Kai, Hai-Dong Yu, Xian Jun Loh

Biomaterials, General Chemistry, Biochemistry (medical), Biomedical engineering

01 October 2020

Xu, J., Xu, J. J., Lin, Q., Jiang, L., Zhang, D., Li, Z., Ma, B., Zhang, C., Li, L., Kai, D., Yu, H.-D., & Loh, X. J. (2020). Lignin-Incorporated Nanogel Serving As an Antioxidant Biomaterial for Wound Healing. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 4(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c00858

Oxidative phosphorylation is an important biological process in the body to produce energy, during which oxygen free radicals are generated as byproduct. Excessive oxygen free radicals cause cell death and reduce the rate of tissue regeneration and healing in a wound. Lignin is a natural antioxidant derived from plants, but its biomedical application is restricted because of the uncertain biocompatibility. In this work, we developed a lignin-incorporated nanogel and explored its application for wound healing. Lignin was extracted from coconut husks and determined to have strong antioxidant activity (IC50 = 25.7 ppm). Various amounts of lignin were incorporated into thermoresponsive nanogels, which were produced from polyurethane copolymers of polyethylene glycol (PEG), polypropylene glycol (PPG), and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). It was shown that the addition of lignin had minimal effects on the gelation and rheological properties of the nanogel but slightly increased the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of poly(PEG/PPG/PDMS urethane) copolymer from 3.38 × 10–4 g mL–1 to 4.61 × 10–4 g mL–1. The lignin-incorporated nanogels did not display detectable cytotoxicity. The lignin-incorporated nanogel possessed antioxidant activity, as it reduced the active oxygen level, protecting the LO2 cells from apoptosis caused by oxidative stress. More importantly, in vivo studies demonstrated that the lignin-incorporated nanogels accelerated the healing of burn wounds in mice as proved by the increased expression of Ki67, one marker of cell proliferation. The present work demonstrates that lignin-incorporated nanogel could serve as an antioxidant wound-dressing material and facilitate the wound healing.

Publisher Copyright

This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - Career Development Award
Grant Reference no. : 202D800033

This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - AME IAF-PP Specialty Chemicals Programme
Grant Reference no. : A1786a0034

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21675085, 81672508, 61601218, and 61505076), Jiangsu Provincial Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (BK20170041, BK20170042), Key University Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province (Grant 16KJA180004) and China-Sweden Joint Mobility Project (51661145021)

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Bio Materials, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c00858

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/18328

2576-6422

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering