In vivo assessment of the durable, green and in situ bio-functional cotton fabrics based carboxymethyl chitosan nanohybrid for wound healing application

Herein, a newly developed approach for durable antibacterial cotton fabrics coated carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCs) via ionic crosslinking driven by cationization of cotton surface (CC) with 3-chloro-2-hydroxyl propyl-trimethyl ammonium chloride (CHTAC) was achieved. In this regard, the novelty was extended to impart a highly antibacterial activity through harnessing of the as-functionalized CMCs/CC for in situ preparation of AgNPs, without using of hazardous reductants. The antibacterial activity of the in situ prepared AgNPs onto CMCs/CC as well as the in vivo study on the rat lab were investigated to evaluate their healing efficiency, pathological tissues and biomarkers. Results affirmed that the treatment of CC with 10% of CMCs was adequate to achieve the highest swelling ratio which, in turns, is able to in situ deposition of AgNPs with a size range of 2-10 nm onto CC/CMCs rendering them a highly durable antibacterial activity against both Gram +Ve and Gram -Ve bacteria, which had a bacterial reduction of 98% to 86% after 20 washing cycles. Furthermore, the in vivo study revealed effectively the advantageous uses of the cotton functionalized with AgNPs compared to CC/CMCs in wound healing via alleviating the oxidative stress and promoting hyaluronic acid in wounded skin as well as increasing RUNX2 in healed skin tissues. •Preparation of CMCs for functionalization of cationized cotton fabrics.•In situ preparation of AgNPs onto surface of the functionalized CC/CMCs.•Cotton / AgNPs exhibited a durable antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. Coli.•In vivo study affirmed the excellent wound healing of the functionalized dressing.