Fibrous aramid hydrogel supported antibacterial agents for accelerating bacterial-infected wound healing

Abstract

Bacterial infections severely retard the wound healing process. Antibacterial drugs were loaded onto aramid nanofibers (ANFs) hydrogels through a convenient strategy to fabricate dressings for bacterial infected wound healing. ANFs hydrogels owned good mechanical properties, high water content (>98%), high water adsorption property (>10,000%) and good water retention ability (a water retention of >5000% after incubating at RH 30% for 8 h), capable to absorb and retain the wound exudate to form a moist environment. The incorporation of antibacterial drugs promised the ANFs hydrogels with durable antibacterial properties. Furthermore, the drug loaded ANFs hydrogels had no cytotoxicity nor hemolytic potential. In vivo skin wound healing results confirmed that the composite hydrogels accelerated the healing rate of infection wounds on mice and were suitable as a potential anti-infective wound dressing.

Keywords: Antibacterial property; Aramid hydrogel; Bacterial-infected wound healing; Biocompatibility; Ciprofloxacin.