Rapid Fabrication of Self‐Healing, Conductive, and Injectable Gel as Dressings for Healing Wounds in Stretchable Parts of the Body

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 30; no. 31
• Main Authors: Li, Sixiang, Wang, Le, Zheng, Wenfu, Yang, Guang, Jiang, Xingyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; conductive hydrogels; guar gum; Knee; Materials science; self‐healing; Slime; stretchable wounds; Tissue engineering; Wound healing
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202002370

Skin wounds on stretchable parts of the body including the elbows, knees, wrists, and nape usually undergo delayed and poor healing due to the interference of their frequent motion. Ordinary dressings that are not flexible enough face difficulty to promote wound healing due to the mismatching between the mechanics of the dressing materials and the wounds. In this study, an injectable, biocompatible, self‐healable, and conductive material poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate)/guar slime (PPGS) is developed for healing wounds with various kinds of movements. As a proof‐of‐principle assay, the healing effect of PPGS is explored on a skin wound model on the nape of rats that often experiences frequent movements. PPGS, which can be prepared within 1 min, successfully accelerates the healing of the wounds. The results suggest that PPGS has great potential in the fields of tissue engineering and biomedicine. A rapid‐fabrication system for self‐healing, conductive, and injectable gel is developed based on the dynamic hydrogen bonds of cationic guar gum. The fabrication can be done within 1 min. The self‐healing gels are successfully applied as dressings to heal wounds in stretchable parts of the body that undergo frequent movements and face issues of poor healing.