Injectable Intrinsic Photothermal Hydrogel Bioadhesive with On-Demand Removability for Wound Closure and MRSA-Infected Wound Healing.

Photothermal hydrogel adhesives have yielded promising results for wound closure and infected wound treatment in recent years. However, photothermal hydrogel bioadhesives with on-demand removability without additional nanomaterials-based photothermal agents have rarely been reported in the literature. In this work, an injectable intrinsic photothermal hydrogel bioadhesive with an on-demand removal trait was developed through dynamic crosslinking of gelatin (Gel), tannic (TA) quinone, and borax for closing skin incisions and accelerating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-infected wound healing. The TA quinone containing polyphenol and quinone groups with multifunctional adhesiveness and intrinsic photothermal performance conferred the hydrogel adhesive with NIR-responsive antibacterial activity. The cross-linking of pH-sensitive boronic ester (polyphenol-B) and Schiff base bonds endowed the hydrogel with great self-healing capacity and on-demand removability. Moreover, hydrogel possessed good biocompatibility, injectability, and hemostasis. The in vivo experiment in a rat cutaneous incision model and full-thickness MRSA-infected wound model indicated that our smart hydrogel could close wounds efficiently and treat infected ones, demonstrating its superiority in noninvasive treatment of cutaneous incisions and enhancing infected full-thickness wound healing. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.