Antibacterial activity of textiles for wound treatment

Major advances in the development and use of antimicrobial textiles to control bacterial proliferation on wound beds continue. However, wound dressings are, in general, not included in standardized regimens for measuring and monitoring their antimicrobial effectiveness. This work adapts these methods to assess the antibacterial activity of textiles designed for wound healing purposes. Environmental conditions representative of those present at the wound site (i.e., moisture levels, infection, and available nutrients) were evaluated. This work shows that moisture levels were the environmental factor that had the greatest influence on the antimicrobial agent activities tested. These results suggest that it is possible to use the more representative environmental conditions present on the wound bed for in vitro screening of textile antimicrobial activity.

We thank Jorge Santos for helping with the textile samples. The authors are grateful for the FCT Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013 and the Project “BioHealth— Biotechnology and bioengineering approaches to improve health quality,” Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2–O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. The authors also acknowledge the project Consolidating Research Expertise and Resources on Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology at CEB/IBB, Ref. FCOMP-01-0124- FEDER-027462. This work was also funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and National Funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology under the project PEst-C/CTM/UI0264/2011. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the FCT for the grant to E. Pinho (SFRH/BD/62665/2009), and also to the Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) for financial support to the research Centre CEB and E. Pinho grant (SFRH/ BD/62665/2009).