A multifunctional hydrogel based on Sanghuang polysaccharides and MXene for infected wound healing

Abstract

Excessive reactive oxidative stress (ROS), lasting inflammation, and bacterial infection are crucial issues impeding infected wound healing, which places a considerable burden on both patients and healthcare systems. Herein, a novel hydrogel system is reported with injectable, adhesive, self-healing, antibacterial, ROS scavenging, pro-vascularization, and anti-inflammation capacities for infected wound healing. This hydrogel system consists of dopamine-modified chondroitin sulfate (ChS-DA) and phenylboronic acid-grafted gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA-PBA) microgel loaded with Sanghuang polysaccharides (SHP) and MXene. In the designed hydrogel, abundant active groups such as catechol group in ChS-DA provide good tissue adhesive performance, and benefited from the dynamic phenylborate bonds between the GelMA-PBA and dopamine groups, the obtained hydrogel performs excellent self-healing property. Meanwhile, SHP endows the hydrogel with antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, ROS scavenging, and pro-vascularization functions and the released SHP can be accelerated by low pH and near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. Moreover, the MXene nanosheets with stable photoresponsive heating behavior are proposed to alleviate oxidative stress, enhance angiogenesis and anti-inflammation, and eradicate bacteria. In vitro tests imply that the prepared hydrogel owns excellent biocompatibility and the SHP brings the hydrogel with excellent L929 cell migration. In an infected wound model in rats, the hydrogel accelerates wound healing by enhancing M2 polarization, promoting angiogenesis, and reducing inflammation. Over all, the obtained multifunctional hydrogel highlights a promising potential strategy in the treatment of wound infection.