Recent advances in the field of biomaterials and their medical applications indicate the significance and potential of various microbial polysaccharides in the development of novel classes of medical materials. Several of the microbially-derived polysaccharides possessing novel and interesting physical and biological properties already have been applied in biotechnology products or are presently being widely investigated (i.e. hyaluronic acid, dextran, alginate, scleroglucan). Among them, microbial cellulose (MC), a polymer synthesized in abundance by Acetobacter xylinum, belongs to the most promising class of biopolymers, despite the fact that its potential of becoming a high value product of biotechnology has not yet been fully estimated or discovered [1]. The unique physical and mechanical properties of MC as well as its purity and uniformity determine applications that range from high quality audio membranes [2] and electronic paper [3] to fuel cells [4] and medical materials [5–7].



This last, emerging area seems to be particularly important since many efforts have been devoted in recent years to explore new skin substitutes and modern wound dressing materials using tissue engineering approaches. Various polymeric materials recently have been investigated for wound dressing application yielding many successful outcomes, but the search for an ideal skin graft ubstitute with properties and functionality similar to human skin is still continuing. We believe that MC, while chemically the same as plant cellulose, displays novel physical properties determined by the particular genetics of the organism. In such a case, MC has a distinctive nanofibrillar structure that may become a perfect matrix as an optimal wound healing environment.

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