Antioxidant Polysulfide Matrices with Tunable Bioresorption for Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Biomedical Engineering
Alyson Schwartz
Abstract
Of millions of individuals in the U.S. with diabetes, a large percentage will suffer from diabetic foot ulcers—chronic, non-healing wounds that can lead to amputation and death. Available remedies for diabetic foot ulcers include topical therapies or scaffold-based wound dressings. Despite availability, current solutions do not provide sufficient antioxidant release to counteract oxidative stress that contributes to wound chronicity. This project explores the development of two co-polymer wound dressings with antioxidant properties and tunable bioresorption for the enhanced healing of diabetic foot ulcers. Slower bioresorbing co-polymer matrices (PPSES) were synthesized via anionic ring-opening polymerization with ethylene sulfide (ES) and propylene sulfide (PS) monomers. Thioglycidol (TG) monomers for polymerizing a faster resorbing co-polymer (PESTG) of ES and TG were also synthesized. Nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) was used to verify successful synthesis of co-polymers and monomers. PPSES crystallinity was characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and electrospun into matrices characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Integration of 1H NMR proton signals confirmed ES and PS conversion into co-polymer PPSES and successful synthesis of TG. DSC indicated a 40 mol.% of ES to PS for desired crystallinity of the co-polymer. From SEM, PPSES fibers were shown to be 0.5-1µm in diameter, comparable to the standard polyester wound dressing Restrata (0.5-1.5 µm). Additional work is necessary to continue the development of PPSES and PESTG matrices for healing diabetic foot ulcers.