Thermoresponsive Forming Hydrogel with Sol-Gel Irreversibility for Effective Methicillin-Resistant Infected Wound Healing.

Abstract

An forming hydrogel has emerged as a promising wound dressing recently. As physically cross-linked hydrogels are normally unstable, most forming hydrogels are chemically cross-linked. However, big concerns have remained regarding the slow gelation and the potential toxicity of residual functional groups from cross-linkers or the polymer matrix. Herein, we report a sprayable forming hydrogel composed of poly(-isopropylacrylamide---butyl acrylate)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(-isopropylacrylamide---butyl acrylate) copolymer (P(NIPAM--nBA)-PEG-P(NIPAM--nBA), denoted as PEP) and silver-nanoparticles-decorated reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (Ag@rGO, denoted as AG) in response to skin temperature. This thermoresponsive hydrogel exhibits intriguing sol-gel irreversibility at low temperatures for the stable dressing of a wound, which is attributed to the inorganic/polymeric dual network and abundant coordination interactions between Ag@rGO nanosheets and PNIPAM. The biocompatibility and antibacterial ability against methicillin-resistant (MRSA) of this PEP-AG hydrogel wound dressing are confirmed and , which could transparently promote the healing of a MRSA-infected skin defect.