Antimicrobial characteristics and biocompatibility of the surgical sutures coated with biosynthesized silver nanoparticles

Surgical sutures play important role during the wound healing of the surgical sites which are known to be sensitive to microbial infections. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been recently used as promising agents against multiple-drug resistant microorganisms. This study was designed to coat the sutures with silver nanoparticles obtained via a green synthesis approach. Microbial-mediated biological synthesis of AgNPs were carried out ecofriendly using Streptomyces sp. AU2 cell-free extract and deposited on silk sutures through an in situ process. Sutures coated with biosyntehsized AgNP (bio-AgNP coated sutures) were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and elemantal analysis were carried out using Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The silver amount released by the bio-AgNP coated sutures was calculated by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) throughout a degradation process. Antimicrobial potential of the bio-AgNP coated sutures was determined against common pathogenic microorganisms Candida albicans, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. To determine the biocompatibility/cytotoxicty of the bio-AgNP coated sutures, the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium) assay was used through an indirect test method; that the elutions obtained by the extraction of the sutures at 1, 4, 8 and 10. days and were placed in contact with 3T3 fibroblast cell culture. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report about coating of the nonabsorbable silk sutures with silver nanoparticles biosynthesized using a microbial extract.