Facile preparation of self-healing hydrogels based on chitosan and PVA with the incorporation of curcumin-loaded micelles for wound dressings

Abstract

The increased demand for improved strategies for wound healing has, in recent years, motivated the development of multifunctional hydrogels with favorable bio-compatibility and antibacterial properties. To this regard, the current study presented the design of a novel self-healing composite hydrogel that could perform as wound dressing for the promotion of wound healing. The composite hydrogels were composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), borax and chitosan functionalized with sialic acid (SA-CS) and curcumin loaded Pluronic F127 micelles. The hydrogels were formed through the boronic ester bond formation between PVA, SA-CS and borax under physiological conditions and demonstrated adjustable mechanical properties, gelation kinetics and antibacterial properties. When incubating with NIH3T3 cells, the hydrogels also demonstrated good biocompatibility. These aspects offer a promising foundation for their prospective applications in developing clinical materials for wound healing.

Use of Biomaterials in 3D Printing as a Solution to Microbial Infections in Arthroplasty and Osseous Reconstruction

“…Another avenue that can be explored to enhance the antimicrobial properties of the discussed biomaterials is phytochemicals [ 379 , 380 ]. Recent research has highlighted the antimicrobial potential of numerous phytochemicals (e.g., [ 381 , 382 , 383 , 384 , 385 , 386 ]); many purified plant compounds have been found to have antimicrobial properties, such as capsaicin [ 387 ] and other capsaicinoids [ 388 , 389 ], curcumin [ 390 , 391 , 392 ], kaempferol and its derivatives [ 393 , 394 ], catechins [ 395 , 396 ], turmeric [ 397 ], fucoidan [ 398 ], and other plant compounds (e.g., [ 399 , 400 ]). Phytochemicals have already been used as coatings for a variety of materials and for a variety of purposes.…”

Recent Advances of Chitosan-Based Hydrogels for Skin-Wound Dressings

“…Chitosan-based hydrogels can be used as drug carriers, allowing drugs to pass more easily through biological barriers, achieving the ability to locally delay the delivery of various active drugs for the treatment of various clinical diseases [ 98 ]. Curcumin has much pharmaceutical potential but, due to its poor water solubility and bioavailability, it often fails to achieve the best therapeutic effect [ 99 ]. Li et al embedded curcumin in a hydrogel formed from thiolated chitosan and liposome, which effectively prolonged the release of curcumin, significantly killed MCF-7 cells, and inhibited the recurrence of breast cancer [ 100 ].…”

A High-Stretching, Rapid-Self-Healing, and Printable Composite Hydrogel Based on Poly(Vinyl Alcohol), Nanocellulose, and Sodium Alginate

“…However, excellent self-healing properties require a fast flow of PVA chains in the hydrogel, which may lead to poor mechanical properties of PVA samples with high selfhealing performance [32,33]. As a sensor material, poor mechanical properties will limit the application range of sensors [34][35][36]; therefore, enhancing the mechanical properties via nano-reinforcement methods while ensuring high self-healing properties is a feasible approach. Carboxylated nanofibrillated cellulose (CNF) has rich functional groups with excellent mechanical properties [32,37,38], and it can enhance the mechanical properties of hydrogel as a nano-filler [39,40].…”