Development of innovative medical devices by dispersing fatty acid eutectic blend on gauzes using supercritical particle generation processes

In order to limit bacterial infections during wound treatment, it is interesting to consider the concept of loadingmedical devices with antibacterial agents. With this in mind, an innovative system with thermosensitive prop-erties was produced: loading a commercially available gauze with a fatty acid eutectic blend based on lauric acid(LA) and myristic acid (MA). This eutectic blend presents a melting point near physiological temperature, whichtogether with its antibacterial properties make an appealing alternative in biomedical applications. At roomtemperature, the properties and the efficacy of the eutectic blend loaded onto gauzes are preserved, whereas atphysiological temperature the eutectic blend undergoes a phase change that facilitates its diffusion from thegauze. The loading of the eutectic blend onto gauzes was performed using two different supercriticalfluidtechnologies, namely, particle from gas saturated solutions (PGSS) and a derived version of rapid expansion ofsupercritical solution (D-RESS). The PGSS led to a heterogeneous dispersion of the eutectic blend in the gauze,whereas the D-RESS process led to the formation of a homogeneous dispersion along the surface of the gauze.Additionally, with D-RESS no phase separation of the eutectic blend occurred and the cytotoxicity was greatlyimproved compared with PGSS without compromising the antibacterial properties of the fatty acid eutecticblend. Hence, the present study highlights the potential use of theflexible D-RESS process to load the fatty acideutectic blend with antibacterial properties onto medical devices in a controllable way. Overall, the effectsproduced by the loaded gauzes suggest the enormous potential of the developed technology in health-relatedareas.

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal), through project PTDC/BBB-490 EBB/1676/2014 – Des.Zyme and ERC-2016-CoG 725034 (ERC Consolidator Grant Des.solve). Authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support by the “Institute Carnot Star” (France) for the development of the high-pressure experimental setup. J.M.S. would also like to acknowledge the financial support by the FCT through the post-doctoral grant (reference number SFRH/BPD/116779/2016).