Antibiotic-based silk fibroin films for burn wound healing

Silk fibroin (SF), which is a protein-based biomacromolecule, proved to be an important biomaterial in biomedical applications and tissue engineering. The present study mainly focused to investigate the effective antibiotic against the common pathogens found at the site of burn wounds. The SF films prepared with selected antibiotics had shown activity against the target bacterial pathogens, but no activity was found against fungal species. The release of antibiotics from films resulted in the microbial susceptibility. Results have shown Ciprofloxacin-6 mu g, Amoxicillin-15 mu g, and Nystatin-70 mu g at minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) has shown maximum zone of inhibition when compared with other antibiotics. The antibiotic-based silk fibroin (ABSF) films have shown a positive effect on cell viability and cell adhesion on the L929 fibroblast cell line. The structural conformations of films were also carried out by FTIR and XRD, an increase in the crystalline size was observed in the antibiotic-based film. Results demonstrate that ABSF films can act against the pathogens without losing their drug nature, can reduce the chance of infections at the site of the wound, and also can establish the basis for the accelerated healing process of the burn wound.