Antifouling Antioxidant Zwitterionic Dextran Hydrogels as Wound Dressing Materials with Excellent Healing Activities

Abstract

Hydrogels as wound dressings have received great attention in recent years. It is highly important yet challenging to develop hydrogel dressings that are biocompatible and that can promote wound healing by lowering the risk of inflammatory responses. In this work, we designed and prepared zwitterionic dextran-based hydrogels using carboxybetaine dextran (CB-Dex) and sulfobetaine dextran (SB-Dex) as raw materials, respectively. The efficacy of CB-Dex and SB-Dex hydrogels in promoting wound recovery was evaluated using a mouse skin wound model. Results suggested that the zwitterionic dextran wound dressings showed a faster healing rate than natural dextran hydrogel and a commercial wound dressing (Duoderm film) due to their excellent protein resistance and capacity to scavenge free hydroxyl radicals. In addition, both CB-Dex and SB-Dex hydrogel wound dressings showed excellent cytocompatibility with NIH3T3 and L929 cells, as well as antibacterial adhesion against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, both zwitterionic hydrogels demonstrated self-healing properties and can be stretched to adapt to irregular full-thickness wound beds. More importantly, they can be removed from the wound site painlessly by washing with normal saline. Overall, this work provided a new pathway to fabricate multifunctional polysaccharide hydrogels for wound treatment and pain relief when changing wound dressings.

Recent advances of zwitterionic-based topological polymers for biomedical applications

“…For example, Wei et al reported two zwitterionic dextran hydrogels (CB-Dex and SB-Dex). 122 Their research work confirmed that zwitterionic modified dextran can minimize bacterial adhesion, prevent wound infection, and accelerate wound healing. In addition, Lv and Wei et al 123 recently developed an anti-swelling conductive hydrogel (DN-FT-HCl) with high toughness, high compressive modulus, and high ionic conductivity, and developed an underwater strain sensor based on this hydrogel.…”

Recent Advances in Zwitterionic Hydrogels: Preparation, Property, and Biomedical Application

“…For better wound healing effects, the corporation of zwitterionic hydrogel and assistant factors such as growth factors, antimicrobial agents, and antioxidants are widely used in recent wound healing research. Qiu et al [ 172 ] modified dextran with SB unit or CB unit and then formed SB-Dextran and CB-Dextran hydrogel with the borax crosslinker. The anomeric hydrogens of α-D-glucopyranose can be attacked by free radicals easily, which provide dextran scavenging capacity against the hydroxyl radical.…”

Multifunctional all-in-one adhesive hydrogel for the treatment of perianal infectious wounds

“…Dextran has a large number of pendant hydroxyl groups and can be easily modified. Dextran-based hydrogels have been shown to significantly promote cardiovascular formation and skin regeneration in vivo (Qiu et al, 2021;Guan et al, 2021). Recently, polyphenols structurally similar to the adhesion proteins secreted by marine mussels have been shown to have strong adhesion to various substrates (Lee et al, 2007), especially by enhancing the cell adhesion and proliferation (Han et al, 2015).…”