Fabrication of Self-Healing Hydrogels with On-Demand Antimicrobial Activity and Sustained Biomolecule Release for Infected Skin Regeneration

Abstract

Microbial infection has been considered as one of the most critical challenges in bioengineering applications especially in tissue regeneration, which engenders severe threat to public health. Herein, a hydrogel performing properties of rapid self-healing, on-demand antibiosis and controlled cargo release was fabricated by a simple assembly of Fe complex as the cross-linker and hyaluronic acid as the gel network. This hydrogel is able to locally degrade and release Fe to kill bacteria as needed because of hyaluronidase excreted by surrounding bacteria, resulting in efficient antibacterial activity against different types of bacteria. The sustained release property of certain types of growth factors was also observed from this hydrogel owing to its dense network. Moreover, this hydrogel could repeatedly heal itself in minutes because of the coordination interaction between Fe and COOH, exhibiting good potential in bioengineering applications on the exposed tissue, where the materials are easily damaged during daily life. When topically applied onto damaged mouse skin with infection of Staphylococcus aureus, the hydrogel is able to inhibit microbial infections, meanwhile promoting cutaneous regeneration, which formed new skin with no inflammation within a 10 day treatment. These results demonstrate the potential application of this self-healing hydrogel for the integrated therapy of antibiosis and tissue regeneration.

An injectable photopolymerized hydrogel with antimicrobial and biocompatible properties for infected skin regeneration

“…The rheological properties of the hydrogels were assessed on a rotational HAAKE Rheostress 6000 rheometer (Thermo Scientific, USA) with a cone plate of 20 mm and an upper 4°as previously reported 38 . The oscillatory rheology of the hydrogels was measured under linear viscoelastic conditions.…”

Rapid and Superior Bacteria Killing of Carbon Quantum Dots/ZnO Decorated Injectable Folic Acid‐Conjugated PDA Hydrogel through Dual‐Light Triggered ROS and Membrane Permeability

“…The subsequent step was the formation of FA–PDA conjugates through the polymerization of the FA precursor solution with the addition of PDA. Finally, Zn 2+ was added to generate the hydrogel . As shown in Figure S1 in the Supporting Information, the color of the DFT‐hydrogel was dark brown.…”

“…According to reported results, the binding constant of TMIs with FA or catechol was high, hence, TMIs could bind to them at the same time. As a result, the two carboxyl groups in the FA molecule or catechol in PDA easily chelated Zn 2+ to form metal–ligand coordination ( Figure A), enabling the DFT‐hydrogel to be formed in only a few seconds (Video S1, Supporting Information) …”

Polysaccharide-Based Formulations for Healing of Skin-Related Wound Infections: Lessons from Animal Models and Clinical Trials

“…The mice treated with the hydrogel loaded with PDGF-BB showed a faster tissue reparation than the control groups (animals treated with hydrogel without PDGF-BB or untreated mice). This effect was accomplished with improvement of angiogenesis, reduction of inflammatory burden, and bacteria levels in the skin [72].…”