Regenerated Cellulose Based Polymers For Biomedical Applications

Cellulose is the most abundant naturally occurring biopolymer available world-wide and is considered as inexhaustible source of raw material for increasing demand for environmental friendly and biocompatible products in various biomedical and technological fields. Silver nanoparticles have been a focus of research in biomedical fields due to the fact that they are highly toxic to micro-organisms exhibiting strong biocidal effects on as many as 16 species of bacteria including E.coli. Silver nanoparticles show excellent antimicrobial activity by binding both to microbial DNA preventing bacterial replication and to the sulfydryl groups of the metabolic enzymes of the bacterial electron transport chain causing their inactivation.