Development of polycaprolactone scaffold with antibacterial activity by an integrated supercritical extraction and impregnation process

Enthalten in
The journal of supercritical fluids 
Volume
78
Start Page
42
End Page
53
Citation
Journal of Supercritical Fluids (78): 42-53 (2013)
Publisher DOI
10.1016/j.supflu.2013.03.017
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84876222754
Publisher
Elsevier Science
The present study is aimed to develop a process for production of functionalized scaffolds impregnated with natural compounds extracted from Patagonian Usnea lichen. A setup for an integrated supercritical CO2 extraction of natural compounds with posterior impregnation on solid matrices (polycaprolactone, PCL) is developed and presented here. In order to establish optimized operating conditions, supercritical extraction of Usnea as well as sorption kinetics and resulting material properties have been studied separately first. Usnea extracts isolated by supercritical carbon dioxide at 30 MPa and 40 C have shown strong antibacterial activity with values of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from less than 1.25 μg/mL to 320 μg/mL against Listeria innocua and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRS) strains. Useful scaffolds of PCL for tissue engineering containing a porous structure with pore diameters between 150 and 340 μm can be obtained when PCL is exposed to carbon dioxide at 35 C and 15 MPa. The degree of crystallinity of functionalized PCL was shown to be influenced by the incorporated antibacterial agent. The presented results showed that the impregnated PCL samples are promising bactericidal compounds against L. innocua. Screening of antibacterial activity of functionalized PCL against a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain showed a higher activity when a low bacterial inoculum level (2 × 104 Colony-forming Units/mL [CFU/mL]) was assayed.
Schlagworte
Antibacterial properties
Polycaprolactone scaffold
Supercritical extraction impregnation
Usnea extract
DDC Class
620: Ingenieurwissenschaften
More Funding Information
National Research Council (CONICET, Argentina)
University of Mar del Plata (Argentina)
Technical University of Hamburg
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia