Cotton gauze fabric was functionalized with 2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) with the aim of developing wound dressings with antibiofilm activity and tunable debriding activity. Cotton-g-DMAEMA gauzes were prepared via one-step grafting (direct method) using 60Co ?-rays as source to initiate the polymerization process. The effects of absorbed dose, dose rate, and monomer concentration on the degree of grafting were evaluated in detail. Some cotton-g-DMAEMA gauzes were subsequently quaternized with methyl iodide. Grafting of DMAEMA and sequential quaternization were confirmed by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy; thermal properties were analyzed using TGA, and morphology by SEM. Grafting of DMAEMA gauzes enhanced blood absorption and collagenase activity, while further quaternization led to a remarkable inhibition of the proteinase activity. Their antimicrobial features were analyzed by evaluating their biofilm inhibiting and biofilm eradicating properties in an in vitro chronic wound model. Although the non-quaternized gauzes only displayed moderate biofilm inhibitory properties at best, the quaternized cotton-g-DMAEMA bearing the highest content of DMAEMA displayed strong biofilm inhibiting and biofilm eradicating properties. This indicates that quaternized cotton-g-DMAEMA gauzes are less prone to be colonized by bacteria and can notably reduce the number of colonies in an infected wound.

Grafting of DMAEMA onto cotton gauze induced by gamma-rays for biomedical purposes

248th National Meeting (2014)

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