Infections associated with orthopaedic implants are life-threatening complications that often occur in medical device insertions. Presently, bacteria are becoming remarkably resistant to antibiotics so there is a new interest on silver as a promising antimicrobial material mainly in the form of nanoparticles. It is known that silver particles must be nanosized because their aggregation leads to the loss of properties; an efficient way to prevent their aggregation is by using polymers. In this work solutions and gels containing silver nanoparticles were prepared by reducing silver ions in the presence of polysaccharides and their antibacterial activity was assessed. Nanoparticles were produced by reducing silver ions with ascorbic acid in a chitosan(-derivative) solution. Biological tests were performed with four strains of bacteria. Bacterial growth kinetics tests and colony count tests were performed using solutions with various concentrations of polymer and silver. A mixed polysaccharide gel was prepared and the antimicrobial properties of this gel were studied by bacterial adhesion tests.  Cytotoxicity assays (LDH) of the gels were performed with osteoblasts (MG63), fibroblast-like (NIH3T3) and hepatocyte-like cell lines (HepG2). Bacterial growth kinetics of the system proved that the silver nanoparticles solutions do possess antimicrobial effect. Colony Count Tests revealed the system to be bactericidal. A 3D hydrogel was prepared and it displayed as well a powerful antimicrobial activity, as shown by bacterial adhesion tests. No bacteria could grow on the surface of the gel because of the presence of the nanoparticles. Cytotoxicity assays proved that this gel was not toxic to the cell lines used. Silver nanoparticles-polysaccharide systems are easy to prepare, reproducible and stable in time. They display a powerful bactericidal activity either in solutions or as gels which are not toxic to cells.

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