Technical Abstract: The design and preparation of wound dressings that redress the proteolytic imbalance in chronic wounds has become an important goal of wound healing and medical materials science. Recent studies have demonstrated that chronic wounds contain high levels of tissue and cytokine destroying proteases including matrix metalloprotease and neutrophil elastase. Thus, the lowering of excessive protease levels in the wound environment prevents the breakdown of extracellular matrix proteins and growth factors necesssary for wound healing. A form of phosphorylated cotton gauze was prepared to target sequestration of proteases from chronic wound exudate through a cationic uptake binding mechanism involving salt bridge formation of the positively charged amino acid side chains of the protease with the phosphate counterions of the wound dressing fiber. Two types of phosphorylated cotton gauze were prepared from sodium hexametaphosphate and diammonium phosphate in separate formulations and applied to cotton gauze by pad/dry/cure methods. The phosphorylated cotton gauze samples were assessed for their ability to lower elastase and collagenase activity. Sodium hexametaphosphate and diammonium phosphate-treated cotton lowered elastase activity 40-70% more effectively than untreated cotton gauze under conditions that mimic chronic wound exudate. The efficacy of the phosphorylated cotton was directly related to the pH of the surface of the dressing. The capacity of the modified gauze to sequester continued elastase secretions similar to that found in a chronic wound over a twenty-four hour period was retained within a 20 percent loss of capacity and was dose dependent with a total of 20 mUnits of elastase removed.