A Novel Route for the Preparation of Silver Loaded Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanogels for Wound Care Systems

<div><p>This study is aimed at the development of a composite wound dressing containing nanosilver loaded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanogels. The PVA nanogels were prepared by fructose induced reduction of silver nitrate within PVA gel to develop nanosilver nanogel (nGel). The influence of various synthesis parameters on PVA nanogel formation was investigated. The particle size of the nanogels, as evaluated by transmission electron microscopy was observed to be in the range of 10–50 nm. Glycerol was added to the nGel system and this composition, nGel/Glc, was coated on cotton fabric to develop a composite wound dressing. The cumulative release of silver from the dressing was found to be ∼36% of the total loading after 48 h. Even at such low concentrations, high antibacterial efficiency was achieved against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. <i>In vivo</i> wound healing studies were carried out over a period of 21 days on full-thickness skin wounds created on Swiss albino mice. Fast healing was observed in nGel/Glc treated wounds with minimum scarring, as compared to other groups. These results suggest that nGel/Glc based dressing material could be promising candidates for wound dressing applications.</p></div