Lysozyme-Loaded Rough Calcium Alginate Hydrogel Film for Antibacterial Wound Dressing

Lysozyme-loaded antibacterial wound dressings hold great promise for wound healing. Herein, we propose a simple yet powerful method of loading antibacterial lysozyme into calcium alginate (CaAlg) hydrogel films for wound healing. This method presents a controlled strategy to modulate the surface roughness of CaAlg hydrogel films by tailoring their thickness, thereby enhancing the lysozyme loading efficiency on the film surface. We fabricated CaAlg hydrogel films with gradient thicknesses by adjusting the copper wire diameters. Morphological characterization confirmed that the surface of the thin CaAlg film is rougher than that of the thick ones. This enhanced surface roughness conferred a larger specific surface area, which effectively promoted the adsorption of lysozyme and, thus, improved the enzyme loading capacity. The release of lysozyme after adsorption and the interactions between lysozyme and alginate were also investigated, and the results showed that approximately 7.5 mg/g lysozyme can be released from the film. Therefore, the lysozyme-loaded CaAlg film (CaAlg-lysozyme) exhibited excellent antibacterial properties. In vivo results showed that the CaAlg-lysozyme film could promote wound healing. The percentages of wound healing of the untreated group, gauze, and CaAlg-lysozyme film were 65.36, 77.78, and 91.43% on day 10, respectively, indicating the great potential of CaAlg-lysozyme film as a practical wound dressing.