Development of konjac glucomannan hydrogels for wound healing

The research presented in this thesis explores the potential uses of KGM and the development of KGM containing hydrogels for wound healing applications. The work involved characterization of five different species of Amorphophallus and investigating the biological activity of KGM and different molecular weight fractions of KGM on skin cells. KGM stimulated fibroblast (but not keratinocyte) proliferation and these effect were influenced by the species, Glc:Man ratio, % of glucomannan, molecular weight and the treatments of KGM. KGM also had the ability to maintain fibroblasts and ADMSC viabilities in unchanged medium for 20 days. The involvement of carbohydrate binding receptors on skin cells was also investigated to obtain a better understanding of the biological activity of KGM. KGM also had the potential for cell transportation where examination subjected to shear stress showed positive result. Following these, two sets of KGM hydrogels; crosslinked KGM and interpenetrating network (IPN); (semi IPN and graft-conetworks) were then developed and characterized using FTIR, DSC, SEM and 13C solid state NMR spectroscopy and their water content were examined. The crosslinked KGM was synthesized at various concentrations of KGM and Ce(IV), while the IPNs were made of KGM and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidinone) (P(NVP)) crosslinked with poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate) (PEGDA) using photopolymerisation. Graft-conetwork hydrogels’ EWC of 85-90% was very stimulatory to fibroblast proliferation and the migration of both keratinocytes and fibroblasts while semi IPN with the highest EWC of (90-95%) and water content did not. Differences in the chemistry and water properties of the hydrogels had significant influences in their biological activities. Examination on 3D tissue engineered skin and wound models showed that the KGM containing hydrogels were able to decrease the extent of skin contracture without affecting the reepithelisation process. Taken together these data support a potential role for KGM and KGM containing hydrogels in wound healing.