Do Carboxymethyl Cellulose and Pal-KTTKS Make Bacterial Cellulose a Superior Wound Dressing or Skin Scaffold?

Due to its promising features and cost-effectiveness, bacterial cellulose (BC) has been widely investigated as a wound dressing and tissue engineering scaffold. However, it fails to support cell adhesion and proliferation faultlessly, which is necessary to ensure cell viability and subsequent tissue regeneration. In this work, to bypass weak cell adhesion and proliferation, introducing the carboxyl functional group into BC was performed through in situ modification with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). In addition, to endow CMC-modified BC with the ability to stimulate collagen synthesis and improve wound healing, Pal-KTTKS peptide was incorporated onto the scaffold. The pore size, fiber diameter, fiber architecture, and porosity of each scaffold were evaluated using SEM analysis. FTIR, XRD, and water contact angle (WCA) were performed to assess the physicochemical properties of scaffolds. The cell adhesion, morphology, proliferation, and spreading were investigated through DAPI staining and SEM. The modification of BC with CMC led to minor changes in physical properties and improved cell adhesion and proliferation. In addition, the enriched scaffolds with Pal-KTTKS did not cause any significant cytotoxicity. Findings suggest that CMC modification improves BC performance in terms of cell adhesion and proliferation. Thus, this modification approach holds remarkable promise for using CMC-modified BC sole or with Pal-KTTKS in various tissue engineering applications like wound tissue regeneration.