Sponge‐Like Macroporous Hydrogel with Antibacterial and ROS Scavenging Capabilities for Diabetic Wound Regeneration

• Published in: Advanced healthcare materials 2022-10, Vol.11 (20), p.e2200717-n/a
• Main Authors: Wei, Cheng, Tang, Pengfei, Tang, Youhong, Liu, Laibao, Lu, Xiong, Yang, Kun, Wang, Qingyuan, Feng, Wei, Shubhra, Quazi T. H., Wang, Zhenming, Zhang, Hongping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acrylic acid; Additives; Anti-Bacterial Agents - chemistry; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Biocompatible Materials - chemistry; Chronic illnesses; Copolymers; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus; Dopamine; Humans; Hydrogels; Hydrogels - chemistry; Hydrogels - pharmacology; macro‐porous hydrogels; Mass transport; Methacrylamide; Moisture content; Polymers; Reactive Oxygen Species; Scavenging; Swelling; swelling‐resistance; Tissue engineering; versatile functions; Water; Water content; Wound Healing
• ISSN: 2192-2640; 2192-2659
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202200717

Hydrogels with soft and wet properties have been intensively investigated for chronic disease tissue repair. Nevertheless, tissue engineering hydrogels containing high water content are often simultaneously suffered from low porous size and low water‐resistant capacities, leading to undesirable surgery outcomes. Here, a novel sponge‐like macro‐porous hydrogel (SM‐hydrogel) with stable macro‐porous structures and anti‐swelling performances is developed via a facile, fast yet robust approach induced by Ti3C2 MXene additives. The MXene‐induced SM‐hydrogels (80% water content) with 200–300 µm open macropores, demonstrating ideal mass/nutrient infiltration capability at ≈20‐fold higher water/blood‐transport velocity over that of the nonporous hydrogels. Moreover, the highly strong interactions between MXene and polymer chains endow the SM‐hydrogels with excellent anti‐swelling capability, promising equilibrium SM‐hydrogels with identical macro‐porous structures and toughened mechanical performances. The SM‐hydrogel with versatile functions such as facilitating mass transport, antibacterial (bacterial viability in (Acrylic acid‐co‐Methacrylamide dopamine) copolymer‐Ti3C2 MXene below 25%), and reactive oxygen species scavenging capacities (96% scavenging ratio at 120 min) synergistically promotes diabetic wound healing (compared with non‐porous hydrogels the wound closure rate increased from 39% to 81% within 7 days). Therefore, the durable SM‐hydrogels exhibit connective macro‐porous structures and bears versatile functions induced by MXene, demonstrating its great potential for wound tissue engineering. A sponge‐like macroporous hydrogel (SM‐hydrogel) with versatile therapeutic functions is developed. The SM‐hydrogel has simultaneous macro‐porous structures (200–300 µm), mechanical fatigue resistance, anti‐swelling, and antibacterial capabilities. Additionally, SM‐hydrogel achieves a satisfactory ability for treating diabetic wounds, enabling its great potential in chronic wound treatment applications.