Dynamic dual-crosslinking antibacterial hydrogel with enhanced bio-adhesion and self-healing activities for rapid hemostasis in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Bio-adhesives based on natural polymer silk fibroin (SF) are high-profiled in the development of rapid hemostatic agents because of their good biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, the lack of bioactivity, mechanical and bio-adhesion performance, restrict their use in the biomedical field. Herein, based on the dynamic dual-crosslinking mechanism, we fabricated a silk microfibers (SMFs)-based multifunctional hemostatic hydrogel by incorporating tannic acid-coated SMF (TA@SMF) motifs into the network of poly(vinyl alcohol)-borax (PB) hydrogel. The cohesion-enhancing strategy, along with dynamic borate-diol bonds and hydrogen bonds, synergically provide the hydrogel with enhanced bio-adhesion and self-healing properties. TA@SMF/PB gel has an elongation at break of more than 600% and adheres to pig skin even after 24 h immersion in water. In vitro experiments have shown good antibacterial, antioxidant, biocompatibility, and hemostatic properties of the TA@SMF/PB gel. In vivo degradation and mouse liver hemostatic test further verified its biosafety and rapid hemostasis performance. The hemostatic time of 42.0 ± 4.9 s in TA@SMF-0.5 was significantly shorter than that in other experimental groups. This study is the original report for functionalizing SMFs with TA as a hemostasis material, which affords a versatile SMF-based toolkit that provides promising candidate materials for rapid hemostatic and infectious wound healing.