In vivo investigation of Ag/Fe3O4 nanocomposite on Staphylococcus aureus wound infection in normal and diabetic rats under static magnetic field

Abstract Bacterial infection, which is resistant to antibiotics, is one of the causes of non-healing wounds. This study aims to investigate the effect of increasing the penetration of silver nanoparticles into infected wounds in normal and diabetic rats by static magnetic field (SMF). After synthesis and physicochemical investigation of Ag/Fe3O4 NCs, antibacterial and cytotoxic properties were investigated. 45 normal and 27 diabetic rats with Staphylococcus aureus infected wounds were randomly divided into groups of 9 with different treatments. Ag/Fe3O4 NCs showed superparamagnetic behavior and had uniform and spherical particles with an average size of 32 nm. In normal infected wound in vivo study, a significant biofilm reduction was observed in group Ag/Fe3O4 NCs with SMF on day 7. Also, on day 14, the group's wound healing percentage was 94%. Hair follicles were observed only in the group on day 21. In diabetic rats, on day 7 wound healing in the Ag/Fe3O4 NCs with SMF group was 50%. On day 21, the high scores in epithelization, new vessel, and collagen maturation belonged to mentioned group. In vivo evaluation of Ag/Fe3O4 NCs under SMF exhibited acceleration of wound healing in diabetic rats, which can provide a noninvasive therapeutic tool for chronic wound healing of diabetic patients.