Fast near infrared light response hydrogel as medical dressing for wound healing

作者：Yang, Kai; Yin, Xinyu; Yan, Yuanyang; Luo, Guanzhou; Xu, Mengyi; Pi, Pihui; Xu, Shouping; Wen, Xiufang^*

来源：Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2020, 137(43): e49309.

DOI：10.1002/app.49309

• gels
• polysaccharides
• radical polymerization
• structure-property relationships

Fast-response smart hydrogels with combination of appropriate mechanical strength, self-healing and tissue adhesiveness ability, and controllable drug release performance are highly desired as wound dressing practice. Herein, a novel dual-crosslinking hydrogel with gold nanorods (AuNRs) well dispersed in its polymer network, D-hydrogel@AuNR, was constructed via ultraviolet light initiated radical copolymerization of acrylamide (AM), isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM), and dopamine methacrylamide (DMA) in a complex solution of AuNRs and cysteamine-grafted oxidized sodium alginate (OSA-SH). The produced D-hydrogel@AuNR exhibits fast response to the near infrared light (NIR, 808 nm) exposure and a cumulative release level of encapsulated gentamicin sulfate (GS) up to 75% within 60 s laser irradiation. The dual-crosslinking network that the first MBA crosslinked P(AM-co-NIPAAM-co-DMA) network and the second imine bonded network makes the tensile stress and tensile strain of D-hydrogel@AuNR could reach up to 397.0 k Pa and 240%, respectively. Moreover, the received D-hydrogel@AuNR also exhibits remarkable self-healing ability and excellent cell affinity and tissue adhesiveness. These desirable properties of D-hydrogel@AuNR together make it an appropriate candidate for practical wound dressing under different biomedical conditions.