Results

Events – realized by the teams of the project

Workshops – organized by the members of the project consortium for students or other target groups, with speakers and instructors from the teams of the project or with invited specialists from other research institutions

Trainings – organized by the members of the project consortium for students or other target groups on subject related to the project

Publications – published articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and scientific communications made by the members of the Project Consortium at international scientific conferences

The achievements of the project “Biotechnological tools implementation for new wound healing applications of byproducts from the crustacean seafood processing industry” – ChitoWound – are closely correlated with the project objectives (1) to develop processes, that are more efficient from the economical point of view and more environmentally friendly, for the production of chitosan and (2) its derivatives, with applications in wounds treatment.
These objectives were materialized by (1) carrying out a method of extracting chitin from crustacean residues resulting from the food processing of crustaceans (this can be considered as garbage that affect the environment quality), eliminating minerals and proteins present alongside chitin in these wastes using sequential proteolytic enzymes at acidic and neutral pHs. The method is environmentally friendly, not using concentrated acids and bases, not being energy or time-consuming.
Chitosan, obtained by deacetylation of chitin, has been used as the basic material for (2) obtaining biomaterials with applications in wound treatment. During the project implementation, there were realized chitosan-based membranes (2a), which included drugs whose release in the environment was controlled by modifications of pH. Variants of membranes, which in addition to drug delivery (paracetamol was used in the study) are gradually dissolved in the reaction medium, are potential candidates for use as “dressings” for skin wounds. Aiming to accelerate the wound healing process, on stable chitosan nanoparticle (2b) there were immobilized peptides (RGDS) known to accelerate the proliferation of dermal cells. Studies on human fibroblast cell cultures have shown that, compared to control (cells were grown without the addition of chitosan nanoparticles), the process of fibroblast proliferation is accelerated by the presence of chitosan nanoparticles with the immobilized RGDS peptide. The results indicate that these nanoparticles could be used in the wound healing process because they speed up the growth and multiplication of dermal cells.
	Examples of chitosan-based membranes containing drugs (paracetamol), which may be used as wound dressings.
	Chitosan nanoparticles with immobilized RGDS peptide promote the proliferation of human fibroblasts in cell cultures, indicating the potential of these nanoparticles to hasten wound healing.