Flexible wood-based pH-responsive hydrogel excipient for rapid recovery of infected wounds

Infected wounds heal slowly and may become pus-filled, bloated, and feverish if left untreated. Wood is an ideal substrate for improving the mechanical properties of composites and increasing the number of loading positions because of the unique structure and excellent properties. In this work, after chemically eliminating some of the lingin and hemicellulose from wood, a flexible wood was obtained. The freeze-thaw approach was used to create a pH-responsive flexible wood-based hydrogel (FTS-G@PC) comprising polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan (CS) crosslinked wrapped gentamicin (GS). It is particularly biocompatible because to the natural wood employed and the physically cross-linked hydrogel generated by cyclic freezing, and the pH responsiveness is more relevant for septic wounds. Results demonstrated that the surface stiffness of the modified wood was significantly decreased closer to the skin and that the flexibility and increased adhesion permitted excellent skin adaptation. In vitro experiments had revealed that FTS-G@PC had high cytocompatibility, pH-responsiveness, and a strong antibacterial. The dressing promoted wound recovery faster in a mouse model of infected wounds. Therefore, FTS-G@PC is one of the promising and excellent renewable dressings.