An AIE-active polyvinyl alcohol/berberine/hemoadhican smart hydrogel for scarless wound healing with visual pH...

Hard-to-heal wounds characterized by infection, dysregulated inflammation, and fibrosis remain a significant clinical challenge. This is particularly true for chronic wounds, such as those resulting from burn injuries and diabetic ulcers. Here, a physical self-assembly strategy is employed to co-incorporate berberine and the polysaccharide hemoadhican into a polyvinyl alcohol matrix, generating a multifunctional hydrogel that integrates antibacterial activity, immunomodulation, and real-time wound pH monitoring. The hydrogel exhibits robust mechanical stability, enabling adaptation to dynamic wound microenvironments. In vitro studies demonstrate that the hydrogel promotes fibroblast migration and angiogenesis, effectively scavenges reactive oxygen species, and regulates macrophage polarization toward an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. In vivo, the hydrogel accelerates wound closure in rabbit ear scar models, diabetic infected wounds, burn wounds, and mixed bacterial infection models, while reducing bacterial burden, enhancing skin appendage regeneration, and attenuating fibrosis and scar formation. Notably, aggregation-induced emission responsiveness allows visual monitoring of wound pH changes, providing intuitive feedback on wound status during healing. Together, this work demonstrates an integrated diagnostic-therapeutic hydrogel platform and offers a material design paradigm for scar-free wound repair.