Highly Adhesive, Stretchable and Breathable Gelatin Methacryloyl-based Nanofibrous Hydrogels for Wound Dressings

Adhesive and stretchable nanofibrous hydrogels have attracted extensive attraction in wound dressings, especially for joint wound treatment. However, adhesive hydrogels tend to display poor stretchable behavior. It is still a significant challenge to integrate excellent adhesiveness and stretchability in a nanofibrous hydrogel. Herein, a highly adhesive, stretchable, and breathable nanofibrous hydrogel was developed via an in situ hybrid cross-linking strategy of electrospun nanofibers comprising dopamine (DA) and gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA). Benefiting from the balance of cohesion and adhesion based on photocross-linking of methacryloyl (MA) groups in GelMA and the chemical/physical reaction between GelMA and DA, the nanofibrous hydrogels exhibited tunable adhesive and mechanical properties through varying MA substitution degrees of GelMA. The optimized GelMA60-DA exhibited 2.0 times larger tensile strength (2.4 MPa) with an elongation of about 200%, 2.3 times greater adhesive strength (9.1 kPa) on porcine skin, and 3.1 times higher water vapor transmission rate (10.9 kg m–2 d–1) compared with gelatin nanofibrous hydrogels. In parallel, the GelMA60-DA nanofibrous hydrogels could facilitate cell growth and accelerate wound healing. This work presented a type of breathable nanofibrous hydrogels with excellent adhesive and stretchable capacities, showing great promise as wound dressings.