Pullulan-Based Hydrogels in Wound Healing and Skin Tissue Engineering Applications: A Review

Wound healing is a complex process of overlapping phases with the primary aim of the creation of new tissues and restoring their anatomical functions. Wound dressings are fabricated to protect the wound and accelerate the healing process. Biomaterials used to design dressing of wounds could be natural or synthetic as well as the combination of both materials. Polysaccharide polymers have been used to fabricate wound dressings. The applications of biopolymers, such as chitin, gelatin, pullulan, and chitosan, have greatly expanded in the biomedical field due to their non-toxic, antibacterial, biocompatible, hemostatic, and nonimmunogenic properties. Most of these polymers have been used in the form of foams, films, sponges, and fibers in drug carrier devices, skin tissue scaffolds, and wound dressings. Currently, special focus has been directed towards the fabrication of wound dressings based on synthesized hydrogels using natural polymers. The high-water retention capacity of hydrogels makes them potent candidates for wound dressings as they provide a moist environment in the wound and remove excess wound fluid, thereby accelerating wound healing. The incorporation of pullulan with different, naturally occurring polymers, such as chitosan, in wound dressings is currently attracting much attention due to the antimicrobial, antioxidant and nonimmunogenic properties. Despite the valuable properties of pullulan, it also has some limitations, such as poor mechanical properties and high cost. However, these properties are improved by blending it with different polymers. Additionally, more investigations are required to obtain pullulan derivatives with suitable properties in high quality wound dressings and tissue engineering applications. This review summarizes the properties and wound dressing applications of naturally occurring pullulan, then examines it in combination with other biocompatible polymers, such chitosan and gelatin, and discusses the facile approaches for oxidative modification of pullulan.