Janus Intelligent Antibacterial Hydrogel Dressings for Chronic Wound Healing in Diabetes

Abstract

Long-term recurrent infections are one of the significant reasons why chronic diabetic wounds are difficult to heal, and the treatment of chronic wounds remains a major clinical challenge. In this work, we developed a kind of Janus hydrogel dressing capable of adjusting the complex microenvironment of wounds for promoting the healing of diabetic chronic wounds. The Janus hydrogel dressings are made of zwitterionic polymers and gentamicin sulfate-modified hyaluronic acid (HA-GS). One side of the hydrogel dressings was brushed with chitosan to act as a bridge between wound dressings and wound tissues. Thus, the wound dressings showed Janus properties with an antifouling surface on one side and an adhesive surface on the other, where the antifouling surface of zwitterionic hydrogels can avoid the adhesion of external bacteria, while the adhesive surface helps the dressings to be fixed on the wound. Moreover, the antibiotic GS was connected to HA through Schiff's base, and thus it can be intelligently released in response to the acidic environment of infected wounds to kill the internal bacteria. The Janus hydrogel dressings were carefully characterized and investigated. In vivo results of a diabetic rat infected wound model showed that the Janus hydrogel dressings could effectively inhibit inflammation, accelerate the formation of granulation tissues and collagen deposition, and promote wound healing. Therefore, this multifunctional hydrogel dressing is a promising candidate for chronic wound healing in clinical practice.

One-Step Physical and Chemical Dual-Reinforcement with Hydrophobic Drug Delivery in Gelatin Hydrogels for Antibacterial Wound Healing

“…The molecular weights were determined by PL-GPC50 gel permeation chromatography (GPC), which was equipped with a differential refractive index detector and used two PL aquagel−OH mixed-M columns (8 μm, 7.5 mm × 300 mm) at an oven temperature of 40 °C. The eluent was 0.2 M NaNO 3 mixed with 0.01 M NaH 2 PO 4 (pH7), and a variety of standard samples of dextran (538,000, 128,800, 68,900,28,230,15,190,3860,1470) were employed for calibration. The fluorescence spectra were acquired on a Fluoaromax-plus spectrofluorometer (HORI-BA).…”

“…Hydrogels, the most competitive materials for wound dressings, possess diverse advantages, such as porous network, soft nature, shape maintenance, superior hydrophilicity, and favorable biocompatibility. Among them, structures like an extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitate the broad application of hydrogels in wound healing. − In peculiar, hydrogels from naturally derived proteins are extensively used to fabricate tissue adhesives for their excellent coordination with the human body. − As a representative material of this glass of adhesives, gelatin is the irreversibly hydrolyzed form of collagen with a broad range of molecular weights depending on the denaturation method. In general, gelatin is soluble in warm water above 40 °C, but on cooling, thermoreversible transparent gels are normally formed accompanied by a partial regain of the collagen triple-helix structure.…”