Temperature/pH Co-responsive CS/NIPAM-Based hydrogel with controlled release of Ga3+ for improved infected wound healing

The treatment of infected wounds remains challenging due to the lack of an ideal wound therapy material. Herein, We present a multifunctional hydrogel dressing material containing gallium ion (Ga3+) based on a physicochemical dual network via in situ free radical polymerization. The presence of Ga3+ not only improves the elasticity and thermal stability of the hydrogel dressing through chelation but also enables smart response release. Fabricated hydrogel dressing possesses large-area plasticity, adequate elasticity, skin adhesion, and peelability. Furthermore, the dressing is responsive to temperature and pH, which can intelligently release Ga3+ according to pH and temperature variations in different healing stages of the wound microenvironment. In vivo infected wound experiments validated the significant wound healing efficiency (healing ratio is 95.75 % in 7 days, 14 % higher than the control group). These results show the promising potential of the developed multifunctional materials for accelerating the healing of infected wounds.