Faculty of Education, Alexandria University
Basic and Applied Science Institute, College of Engineering Arab Academy for Science, Technology and
Maritime Transports, Alexandria 21544, Egypt
The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Department of Engineering Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University,
Alexandria 21544, Egypt
Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Doha Area, 7th Ring Road, Safat 13133, Kuwait
Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Bio-Innovation Center, Utah State University,
Logan, UT 84341, USA
Mai. I. El-Kaliuoby, Motaz Amer, and Nader Shehata
Abstract:
Chronic wounds are commonly colonized with bacteria in a way that prevents full healing
process and capacity for repair. Nano-chitosan, a biodegradable and nontoxic biopolymer, has
shown bacteriostatic activity against a wide spectrum of bacteria. Effectively, pulsed electromagnetic
fields are shown to have both wound healing enhancement and antibacterial activity. This work
aimed to combine the use of nano-chitosan and exposure to a pulsed electric field to overcome two
common types of infectious bacteria, namely P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. Here, bacteria growing rate,
growth kinetics and cell cytotoxicity (levels of lactate dehydrogenase, protein leakage and nucleic
acid leakage) were investigated. Our findings confirmed the maximum antibacterial synergistic
combination of nano-chitosan and exposure against P. aeruginosa than using each one alone. It is
presumed that the exposure has influenced bacteria membrane charge distribution in a manner that
allowed more chitosan to anchor the surface and enter inside the cell. Significantly, cell cytotoxicity
substantiates high enzymatic levels as a result of cell membrane disintegration. In conclusion,
exposure to pulsed electromagnetic fields has a synergistic antibacterial effect against S. aureus and
P. aeruginosa with maximum inhibitory effect for the last one. Extensive work should be done to
evaluate the combination against different bacteria types to get general conclusive results. The ability
of using pulsed electromagnetic fields as a wound healing accelerator and antibacterial cofactor has
been proved, but in vivo experimental work in the future to verify the use of such a new combination
against infectious wounds and to determine optimum treatment conditions is a must.
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