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 threedimensional network structure and continuous release of active components at the wound site, enhancing reepithelialization, improving collagen deposition, and increasing angiogenesis. The wound healing rate of fullthickness 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.