Abstract:

Challenges of antimicrobial resistance by pathogens, cellular toxicity, and allergic reactions to conventional wound healing therapies, constitute major drawbacks in wound management. It has, therefore, become imperative to expand the search for biomaterials that possess promising wound healing properties. Among the therapeutic attributes of probiotics are antimicrobial and tissue regeneration potentials. On the other hand, keratin, a biopolymer, is also known to support tissue regeneration, thereby facilitating wound healing. It has been shown to possess a measurable degree of antimicrobial properties. The combination of keratin and a probiotic in a wound-healing formulation should expectedly produce mutual potentiation in their antimicrobial and tissue regeneration properties. In the present study, keratin in chicken feather was extracted by alkaline hydrolysis. Hydrogels were prepared with combinations of the keratin and a probiotic (Lactobacillus acidophilus) at two levels of bio-load (1 x 108 CFU/ml and 2 x 108 CFU/ml). The probiotic-loaded keratin-based hydrogels were subjected to in vivo tests for wound-healing efficacy and control of multi-drug resistant wound pathogens. Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopic characterization of keratin showed that the protein was structurally intact at the end of extraction process and in the formulation. The formulated hydrogels retained its homogeneity throughout the period of study. The probiotic-enriched hydrogel produced comparatively better re-epithelialization of skin wounds, and control of microbial infection within the period of 16 days, when analysed statistically (p < 0.05). This study has demonstrated the potentials of enhanced therapeutic efficacy when L. acidophilus, as a probiotic, is combined with keratin for the management of wounds infected by multi-drug resistant bacteria.