Multifunctional
hydrogel-based wound dressings have been explored
for decades due to their huge potential in multifaceted medical intervention
to wound healing. However, it is usually not easy to fabricate a single
hydrogel with all of the desirable functions at one time. Herein,
a bilayer model with an outer layer for hydrogel wound dressing was
proposed. The inner layer (Hm-PNn) was a hybrid
hydrogel prepared by N-isopropylacrylamide and chitosan-N-2-hydroxypropyl trimethylammonium chloride (HACC), and
the outer layer (PVAo-PAmp) was prepared by
polyvinyl alcohols and acrylamide. The two hydrogel layers of the
bilayer model were covalently connected with excellent interfacial
strength by photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation
chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization. The outer layer exposed
to the ambient environment exhibited good stretchability and toughness,
while the inner-layer hydrogel adhered to the skin exhibited excellent
softness, antibacterial activity, thermoresponsivity, and biocompatibility.
In particular, the inner layer of a hydrogel demonstrated excellent
antibacterial capability toward both Staphylococcus
aureus as Gram-positive bacteria and Escherichia coli as Gram-negative bacteria. Cell
cytotoxicity showed that the cell viability of all Hm-PNn layer hydrogels exceeds 80%, confirming that the hydrogels
bear excellent biocompatibility. In vivo experimental results indicated
that the Hm-PNn/PVAo-PAmp bilayer hydrogel has a significant effect on the acceleration of
wound healing, which was demonstrated in a full-thickness skin defect
model showing improved collagen disposition and granulation tissue
thickness. With these results, the established multifunctional bilayer
hydrogel exhibits potential as an excellent wound dressing for wound
healing applications, especially for open and infected traumas.