Functionalized injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogel with antioxidative and photothermal antibacterial activity for infected wound healing

Infected wound healing has always been a challenge in clinic. Effective and economic wound dressings with combined antibacterial activity and pro-healing function are highly desirable, especially in the context of infected wounds. An obvious advantage of antibacterial wound dressing is to avoid the overuse of antibiotics and the occurrence of drug resistance. Herein, an injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogel with antioxidative and pho-tothermal antibacterial activity as a functional dressing was prepared, characterized and evaluated in an experimental infected wound model. This hydrogel was developed by loading graphene oxide (GO) in a natural polymer network consisting of hyaluronic acid grafted with tyramine (HT) and gelatin grafted with gallic acid (GGA). The HT/GGA/GO hydrogels have a porous cross-linked network structure and demonstrate a good sta-bility, biocompatibility, antioxidant, hemostatic and photothermal antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, in vivo studies have shown that HT1/GGA2/GO0.1 hydrogel dressing combined with photothermal therapy can effectively prevent early infection and accelerate wound healing. These results indicated this functionalized injectable hydrogel HT1/GGA2/GO0.1 has a great potential in wound dressing application.

Automated summary

An injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogel with antioxidative and photothermal antibacterial activity has been developed as a functional dressing for infected wounds. This hydrogel demonstrates good stability, biocompatibility, and effective prevention of early infection and acceleration of wound healing.