An Injectable Chitosan-Based Self-Healable Hydrogel System as an Antibacterial Wound Dressing

Due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility, chitosan-based hydrogels have great potential in regenerative medicine, with applications such as bacteriostasis, hemostasis, and wound healing. However, toxicity and high cost are problems that must be solved for chitosan-based hydrogel crosslinking agents such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and genipin. Therefore, we developed a biocompatible yet cost-effective chitosan-based hydrogel system as a candidate biomaterial to prevent infection during wound healing. The hydrogel was fabricated by crosslinking chitosan with dialdehyde chitosan (CTS–CHO) via dynamic Schiff-base reactions, resulting in a self-healable and injectable system. The rheological properties, degradation profile, and self-healable properties of the chitosan-based hydrogel were evaluated. The excellent antibacterial activity of the hydrogel was validated by a spread plate experiment. The use of Live/Dead assay on HEK 293 cells showed that the hydrogel exhibited excellent biocompatibility. The results demonstrate that the newly designed chitosan-based hydrogel is an excellent antibacterial wound dressing candidate with good biocompatibility.