Adhesive and antibacterial guar gum-based nanocomposite hydrogel for remodeling wound healing microenvironment

Hydrogels are promising wound dressings due to their extracellular matrix-like properties and tunable structure-function characteristics. Besides the physical isolation effect, hydrogel dressings are highly expected to possess tissue-adhesive performance and antibacterial capacity, which are beneficial for their clinical translations. Herein, a guar gum (GG)-based nanocomposite hydrogel was fabricated by mixing methacrylated GG (GGMA), acrylic acid, acrylated 3-aminophenylboronic acid, mangiferin (MF)-loaded cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC) micelles (MF@CTAC) and radical initiator. This hydrogel exhibited stable and tunable mechanical property as well as excellent biocompatibility. Borate crosslinking and physical interactions of the hydrogel produced a certain degree of self-healing ability, good tissue adhesive and hemostatic capacity. MF endowed the hydrogel with good antioxidant ability and excellent synergistic antibacterial ability with CATC. In vivo experiments indicated that the hydrogel significantly accelerated wound healing with a narrower wound edge, thicker granulation tissue, maturer epidermis and dermis tissue, higher collagen deposition level, milder inflammatory response, and enhanced angiogenesis. The hydrogel without adding antibiotics and other exogenous active ingredients showed great application potential as a versatile wound dressing material.