Multifunctional sprayable carboxymethyl chitosan/polyphenol hydrogel for wound healing

The use of facile methods to synthesize environmentally friendly and multifunctional hydrogel dressings is still a major challenge in development. Herein, Turkish gall extract (TGE) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) were combined and sprayed using a dual syringe to form a multifunctional TGE-CMCS hydrogel (TC gel) in one step through abundant hydrogen bonding between functional groups as a green approach. TC gel showed rapid gelation at 19.0 ± 2.9 s. Apart from the advantage of being able to adapt to different wound shapes, TC gel retained the antioxidant, antibacterial, hemostatic and anti-inflammatory properties of TGE. In vitro antibacterial experiments showed that TC-gel eliminated 98.27 ± 0.79 % of Staphylococcus aureus and 98.87 ± 1.08 % of Escherichia coli. Compared with TGE or CMCS alone, TC gel accelerates skin wound healing due to its three-dimensional network structure and continuous release of active components at the wound site, enhancing re-epithelialization, improving collagen deposition, and increasing angiogenesis. The wound healing rate of full-thickness skin defect rats treated with TC gel was 93.98 ± 0.63 % on the 10th day. These results suggest that TC gel combined with a facile and scalable manufacturing method is a promising multifunctional wound dressing for clinical wound management.