Engineered reversible adhesive biofoams for accelerated dermal wound healing: Intriguing multi-covalent phenylboronic...

Development of wound dressings that not only have multiple advantages including good biocompatibility, barrier properties, adhesive properties, but also exhibit anti-bacterial, anti-infection, and promote cell adhesion, accelerated wound healing process, remains challenging in the skin tissue engineering. In this work, a noninvasive adhesive biofoam with interconnectivity structure and antibacterial property was first-time designed through solid surfactant stabilized high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) template, where bacteriostatic Zn-CuO@GO nanosheets dynamic assemble with 4-vinylphenylboronic acid at the oil/water interface as cooperative emulsifier. Taking advantage of the cooperative assembly of the PBA/Zn-CuO@GO, the biofoams display microfibrousity and interconnectivity to facilitate material-cellular interaction as well nutrient exchange, and can effectively inhibit the growth of E. coli and S. aureus. Meanwhile, phenylboronic acid functional groups not only endow biofoam reversible adhesive property though dynamic phenylboronic acid/cis-diol interaction, but also facilitate the rearrangement of Zn-CuO@GO nanosheets in more uniform way at emulsion interface. Taken together, the biofoams can strongly adhere to the wound bed reducing the risk of infection and accelerate earlier tissue regeneration, which exhibit great potential in bioengineering application.