An Injectable, Adhesive, and Self-Healing Hydrogel with Inherently Antibacterial Property for Wound Dressing

Antibacterial hydrogel has emerged as an excellent candidate for wound dressing with the ability to eliminate infection and promote wound healing. Herein, a dynamic hydrogel is developed by Schiff base reaction of mixed charged polypeptides and oxidized dextran (ODex). Specifically, biodegradable polypeptides of 1-(propylthio)acetic acid-3-butylimidazole-modified poly(L-lysine) (PLL-PBIM) and adipate dihydrazide-modified poly(L-glutamic acid) (PLG-ADH) are achieved with tunable substitution and charge. By mixing with ODex, charged polypeptides of PLL-PBIM and PLG-ADH led to an injectable and self-healing hydrogel in seconds. The injectable and self-healing performances of the hydrogels are ascribed to the reversible imine and hydrazone bonds formed between polypeptides and ODex. The positively charged hydrogels exhibited over 95% antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. An optimized balancing of PLG-ADH and PLL-PBIM significantly reduced the hemolysis rate and cytotoxicity of hydrogels. Therefore, the dynamic hydrogel with excellent biocompatibility and inherently antibacterial ability can have potential application for wound dressing.