Silver sulfadiazine (SSD) is a useful antimicrobial agent for wound treatment. However, recent findings indicate that conventional SSD cream has several drawbacks for use in treatments. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a promising material for wound dressing due to its outstanding properties of holding water, strength and degradability. Unfortunately, BC itself exhibits no antimicrobial activity. A combination of SSD and BC is envisaged to form a new class of wound dressing with both antimicrobial activity and biocompatibility, which has not been reported to date. To achieve antimicrobial activity, SSD particles were impregnated into BC by immersing BC into SSD suspension after ultrasonication, namely SSD-BC. Parameters influencing SSD-BC impregnation were systematically studied. Optimized conditions of sonication time for no less than 90 min and the proper pH value between 6.6 and 9.0 were suggested. The absorption of SSD onto the BC nanofibrous network was revealed by XRD and SEM analyses. The SSD-BC membranes exhibited significant antimicrobial activities against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus evaluated by the disc diffusion method. In addition, the favorable biocompatibility of SSD-BC was verified by MTT colorimetry, epidermal cell counting method and optical microscopy. The results demonstrate the potential of SSD-BC membranes as a new class of antimicrobial and biocompatible wound dressing.

Silver sulfadiazine (SSD) particles in homogeneous dispersion state were prepared by an ultrasonic method and then nano- and microparticles were separated using centrifugation. SSD particles with narrow size distribution were impregnated with bacterial cellulose (BC) to produce BC–SSD composite membrane used as burn wound dressing. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine the surface morphology of BC–SSD membranes. The incorporation of SSD in BC–SSD was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Antimicrobial tests in vitro indicated that BC–SSD showed excellent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. The effects of BC–SSD on burn wound healing were assessed by rat models. The comparative study confirmed that the wound treated with BC–SSD showed high healing rate. The bacteria count in BC–SSD group was far less than control group. Histological analysis showed that epithelialization progressed better in wound treated with BC–SSD. These values demonstrated that the BC–SSD composite membrane could be a promising wound dressing for burn