Synthesis of multifunctional hydrogels based on carboxymethyl cellulose for wound healing applications

Bioinspired Catechol-Nanocellulose/Chitosan Polymeric Hydrogel with Enhanced Wet Adhesion and Antibacterial Activity for Diabetic Wound Healing.

It is demonstrated that the catechol-nanocellulose/chitosan polymeric hydrogel effectively overcomes adhesion, infection, and oxidative stress barriers in diabetic wound healing, making it a promising candidate for difficult-to-heal chronic ulcers.

Design of Plant Oil-Based Cationic Hydrogels for Protein Encapsulation and Controlled Delivery.

GelMA-Based Hydrogels for Controlled Delivery of Antimicrobial Peptides against Candida albicans Biofilm

Objective: This study aimed to engineer and characterize GelMA hydrogels and dual-cross-linked GelMA–alginate hydrogels as tunable delivery platforms for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs; Histatin-5, GK-17, and INLK), and to evaluate their physicochemical properties, release kinetics, cytocompatibility, and antibiofilm efficacy against Candida albicans. Methods: Hydrogels with varying GelMA concentrations (5%, 7.5%, and 10%), with or without alginate, were fabricated and characterized in terms of microstructure, rheological and mechanical properties, swelling, degradation, and AMP release kinetics. Cytocompatibility was assessed using human gingival fibroblasts, and antimicrobial activity was evaluated through colony-forming unit counts, metabolic activity assays, biomass quantification, and confocal microscopy. Results: All hydrogels exhibited suitable moldability, pseudoplastic behavior, and structural stability. Increasing GelMA concentration and alginate incorporation enhanced mechanical properties: G10 displayed a higher compressive modulus (12,437.39 ± 565.33 Pa; p < 0.0001) compared with the other GelMA-only groups, while G7.5A showed the highest value overall (18,090.45 ± 2324.12 Pa; p < 0.0001). Sustained peptide release was observed over 48 h, with faster release from lower GelMA concentrations; G5 released 20.46% of Histatin-5-FAM after 48 h (p < 0.006). All formulations showed high cytocompatibility, with viability exceeding 100% at 24 h, indicating a stimulatory effect on fibroblast metabolic activity rather than mere absence of cytotoxicity. Hydrogels loaded with INLK or GK-17 significantly reduced C. albicans biofilm viability, biomass, and metabolic activity, whereas unloaded hydrogels showed no antifungal effect. G5-INLK reduced biofilm viability by approximately 1.6 log (p < 0.006) among the GelMA 5% groups, G7.5-INLK and G7.5-GK-17 reduced it by approximately 2 log (p < 0.0001), and G10-INLK produced a 0.9–1.2 log reduction. Conclusion: GelMA-based hydrogels provide a tunable and biocompatible platform for controlled AMP delivery, enabling effective disruption of C. albicans biofilms. This approach represents a promising strategy for the localized treatment of C. albicans-associated oral biofilm infections.

The Role of a Multifunctional Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogel with Biofunctionalized Hyaluronic Acid and Asiaticoside-Loaded Niosomes in Wound Healing.

Stable hydrogel formation with favorable porous architecture, swelling behavior, thermal stability, and homogeneous distribution of nanovesicles was well established and exhibited excellent biocompatibility, hemocompatibility, and enhanced cell-material interactions.

Lentinan-Based Multifunctional Composite Hydrogel for Wound Healing

Conventional wound dressings suffer from unbalanced tissue adhesion, skin-mismatched mechanical properties, and insufficient long-term bioactivity. Herein, a dual physically cross-linked multifunctional tissue adhesive lentinan–polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)–tannic acid membrane (LPTM) was fabricated via a freeze–thaw-assisted immersion strategy. The optimized LPTM-3 hydrogel patch, with a stable network formed by PVA crystalline cross-linking and hydrogen bond cross-linking, achieved a balanced tensile strength of 16.1 MPa and an elongation at break of 149.3%, robust yet non-damaging porcine skin adhesion of 163.17 kPa, antibacterial activity, and good biocompatibility with a hemolysis rate below 2.24%. Notably, LPTM-3 promoted fibroblast migration and modulated inflammatory cytokine expression in vitro, and achieved 99.06% full-thickness wound closure in rats on day 14, matching a commercial dressing. This work provides a promising candidate for clinical wound repair and a facile design strategy for polysaccharide-based bioadhesive materials.

Glyoxal-crosslinked acacia gum hydrogel reinforced with graphene oxide and zinc ferrite for antibacterial and biomedical applications

The development of multifunctional hydrogels with balanced mechanical strength, swelling behavior, cytocompatibility, and antibacterial performance remains a key challenge in wound-dressing applications. In this study, a glyoxal-crosslinked acacia gum (AG) hydrogel reinforced with graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and zinc ferrite (ZnFe₂O₄) nanoparticles was developed as a tri-component nanocomposite system. The incorporation of GO and ZnFe₂O₄ within the crosslinked AG network produced formulation-dependent structural and functional changes. The peak compressive strength was numerically higher in the final formulation (0.682 vs. 0.173 MPa), while the equilibrium swelling ratio decreased significantly from 463% to 292%. Rheological analysis showed elastic-dominant behavior, indicating stable gel-like viscoelastic properties under the tested conditions. Biological evaluation demonstrated high extract-based cytocompatibility toward MG-63 cells. Furthermore, preliminary antibacterial testing showed activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli , with inhibition values of 99.0% and 93.4%, respectively, in the representative CFU dataset. The proposed membrane-perturbation and oxidative-stress-related mechanisms are literature-supported and were not directly validated in this study. Overall, the ternary formulation showed higher peak compressive strength, significantly lower equilibrium swelling, favorable extract-based cytocompatibility, and preliminary antibacterial activity under the tested conditions. These findings support further investigation of this material as an antibacterial wound-dressing candidate following additional biological validation.