Production and characterization of bacterial cellulose membranes with hyaluronic acid and silk sericin

Abstract Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a natural polysaccharide that has gained increasing interest in the biomedical and cosmetic field due to its unique structure and properties. In this study, BC was functionalized with hyaluronic acid (HA) and silk sericin (SS) using the in situ and ex situ methods. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that the HA and SS were successfully integrated into the BC membrane. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that the novel BC-HA/SS composites had a typical type I cellulose crystalline form with nanodimensional network, and microfibrils. The roughness of the hybrid membranes was analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the thermal stability of the ex situ modified BC-HA/SS composite was better than the pure BC and in situ modified BC-HA/SS composite, the tensile strength and moisture content values of the ex situ modified BC-HA/SS were also the highest compared with that of the pure BC and in situ modified BC-HA/SS. Further, improved cell viability was observed on the ex situ modified BC-HA/SS composite. The results of this study showed that the novel BC based composites especially the ex situ modified BC-HA/SS composite could be applied potentially as wound dressing and cosmetic materials.