Green
Starch-Based Hydrogels with
Excellent Injectability, Self-Healing, Adhesion,
Photothermal Effect, and Antibacterial Activity for Promoting Wound
Healing
posted on 2024-01-06, 14:45authored byKe Xu, Xinyu Sun, Chuanyu Chong, Li Ren, Lili Tan, Haonan Sun, Xin Wang, Lihua Li, Junfang Xia, Ruoxi Zhang, Li Wang
Hydrogel materials have proven valuable
in wound healing, but improving
the safety of these hydrogels is still challenging. Therefore, designing
multifunctional natural polymeric-based hydrogels with excellent mechanical
properties to replace toxic or potentially risky, refractory chemical
polymer-based hydrogels such as polyacrylamide and polyethylene glycol
is of particular significance. Here, a green starch-based hydrogel
(Starch@Ca/CGC hydrogel) with injectability, self-healing, and instant
adhesion was constructed by coordination interaction, electrostatic
interaction, and intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonds.
Therein, natural bioactive small molecules gallic acid (GA) and carvacrol
(CA) were coordinated with metal ions by the ultrasonic-triggered
self-assembly and ionic cross-linking codriven strategy to prepare
Cu-gallic acid-carvacrol nanospheres (CGC NPs), which conferred the
hydrogel with near-infrared light (NIR)-controlled CA release and
photothermal synergistic sterilization properties, as well as antioxidant
and anti-infection capabilities. More importantly, the multifunctional
hydrogel platforms could completely cover an irregular wound shape
to prevent secondary injury and significantly accelerate wound healing
under NIR with more skin appendages like hair follicles and blood
vessels appearing. Therefore, it is expected that this starch-based
hydrogel could serve as a competitive multifunctional dressing in
the biomedical field, including bacteria-derived wound infection and
other tissue repair.