An adenine-modified chitosan cross-linked 8arm-PEG-CHO hydrogel for promoting infected wound healing

Abstract

In order to develop better wound dressing with excellent performance and low cost to promote wound healing at different stages, an aldehyde-terminated eight-arm PEG (8arm-PEG-CHO) was prepared and cross-linked with adenine-modified chitosan (CS-A) via a Schiff base reaction to obtain a CS-A/PEG hydrogel. The prepared CS-A/PEG hydrogel exhibited excellent self-healing, injectable and adhesion properties, strong mechanical strength, good antibacterial activities, cytocompatibility and the ROS scavenging effect. In addition, the hydrogel has the ability to promote cell migration and proliferation due to the introduction of adenine, which allows the hydrogel to promote wound healing not only during the inflammation phase, but also during the proliferation phase. The ability of the CS-A/PEG hydrogel to promote wound healing was studied in an infected wound model, and it can significantly promote the healing of infected wounds. The wounds treated with the CS-A/PEG hydrogel displayed less inflammatory cell infiltration, more angiogenesis and collagen deposition, faster regeneration of epithelial tissue. Therefore, this hydrogel can promote wound healing at the different stages, which has great application potential for use as a dressing for promoting the healing of infected wounds.