Abstract
The present study is designed to assess the potential benefits of controlled delivery of silver sulfadiazine from collagen scaffold (SSDMโCS) in infected deep partial thickness burn wounds in which epidermis is lost completely and the entire papillary dermis and most of the recticular layer of the dermis is lost. Infection induced by inoculating 10^7^ colony forming units (cfu) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa caused significant increase in wound size (20%) till day 15, which decreased significantly from day 9 by SSDMโCS treatment, showing complete healing by day 27 (control โฅ 37 days). Early subsidence of infection (<10^2^ cfu, day 9) by SSDMโCS resulted in faster epidermal resurfacing and fibroplasia, whereas heavy microbial load (>10^7^ cfu, day 9) in controls caused severe inflammatory cellular infiltration. Persistent infection triggered early expression of proinflammatory cytokines intereukinโ6, intereukin 1โฮฒ, and tumor necrosis factorโฮฑ, lasting until day 9, whereas cytokine level decreased in SSDMโCSโtreated group by day 6. Infection exacerbated expression of active matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)โ2 and โ9 in controls (day 15), while SSDMโCS positively modulated MMPโ2 and โ9 with faster decline in their levels (day 12). Inherent nature of the dressing to maintain drug level at equilibrium therapeutic concentration (51.2 ฮผg/mL) for prolonged time (72 h), below systemic toxic limits (20 ฮผg/dL, serum level), accelerated the magnitude and sequence of reparative events. ยฉ 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2009