| The influence of collagen as an effective substitute for gelatin was investigated on properties of chitosan/gelatin hydrogels forfibroblasts growth and attachment for wound dressing applications. We synthe-sized hydrogels based on chitosan associated with collagen and gelatin biopolymers (in the ratio of 1:5and 1:1, respectively). The hydrogels properties such as morphology, swelling ratio, mechanical char-acteristics, water vapor loss, water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), and biodegradation were analyzed.1105humanfibroblasts were seeded per ml of hydrogels and maintained for 7 days. Cell viability wasassessed by using MTT. The presence of collagen caused reduced swelling ratio, and biodegradation ratecompared to chitosan/gelatin hydrogels (p<0.05). The introduction of collagen into chitosan hydrogelsimproved the mechanical strength compared to gelatin. Hydrogels with collagen possessed an optimumWVTR compared to the chitosan group and hydrogels with gelatin (p<0.05). Analyzing the morphologyof hydrogels revealed that the addition of collagen leads to a homogenous and interconnected structure.Collagen impregnation promoted cell survival and attachment compared with chitosan hydrogels after 7days (p<0.05). Collectively, these results demonstrated the potential of the chitosan/collagen hydrogelsfor wound dressing applications. |