Controlled release and antibacterial activity of tetracycline hydrochloride-loaded bacterial cellulose composite membranes

• Tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) was successfully loaded into bacterial cellulose (BC).
• BC-TCH composite membranes displayed excellent antibacterial activities and no cytotoxicity in HEK293 cells.
• The fabricated BC-TCH composite membranes can be used for wound dressing applications.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is widely used in biomedical applications. In this study, we prepared an antibiotic drug tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH)-loaded bacterial cellulose (BC) composite membranes, and evaluated the drug release, antibacterial activity and biocompatibility. The structure and morphology of the fabricated BC-TCH composite membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The TCH release results show that the incorporation of BC matrix to load TCH is able to control the release. In vitro antibacterial assay demonstrate that the developed BC-TCH composites displayed excellent antibacterial activity solely associated with the loaded TCH drug. More importantly, the BC-TCH composite membranes display good biocompatibility. These characteristics of BC-TCH composite membranes indicate that they may successfully serve as wound dressings and other medical biomaterials.