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Updated: Aug 1, 2026

Doxycycline Loaded Collagen-Chitosan Composite Scaffold for the Accelerated Healing of Diabetic Wounds
Published on: August 21, 2021
A highly stretchable, adhesive, and antibacterial hydrogel with chitosan and tobramycin as dynamic cross-linkers for
Anqi Xu1, Nan Zhang1, Shixing Su1
1Department of Cerebrovascular Surgery, Engineering Technology Research Center of Education Ministry of China, Neurosurgery Center, Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510280, Guangdong, China.
Abstract:
Diabetic wounds pose a significant challenge due to their susceptibility to bacterial infection in a high-glucose environment, which impedes the wound healing process. To address this issue, there is a pressing need to develop suitable hydrogels that can promote the regeneration of diabetic wounds in clinical practice. In this study, we designed and fabricated a highly stretchable, adhesive, transparent, and antibacterial hydrogel through a one-pot radical polymerization of N-[Tris (hydroxymethyl) methyl] acrylamide (THMA) and acrylic acid (AA), and with chitosan and the antibiotic tobramycin as the dynamic physical crosslinkers. The copolymer contains a large number of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, which can form an interpenetrating network structure with chitosan and tobramycin through multiple dynamic non-covalent bonds. This hydrogel exhibited over 1600 % elongation through an energy dissipation mechanism and strong adhesion to various surfaces without any chemical reaction. In vivo, studies conducted on a staphylococcus aureus-infected full-thickness diabetic skin wound model demonstrated that the hydrogel loaded with tobramycin as one of the crosslinkers had a long-lasting antibacterial activity and effectively accelerated wound healing. Therefore, the antibiotic-loaded adhesive hydrogel we proposed holds great promise as a treatment for bacteria-infected diabetic wounds.
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