Polymer Composite Sponges with Inherent Antibacterial, Hemostatic, Inflammation-Modulating and Proregenerative Performances for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus-Infected Wound Healing.

Abstract

Clinical wound management remains a major challenge due to massive bleeding, bacterial infection, and difficult wound healing after tissue trauma. To simultaneously address these issues, composite polymer sponges for accelerating drug-resistant bacterial infected wound healing are fabricated by facilely mixing sodium polyacrylate (PAAS), double quaternary ammonium salts-conjugated chitosan (QAS-CS), and collagen (COL) in aqueous solution, followed by lyophilization. Composite sponges (PAAS/QAS-CS/COL, PQC) show highly porous microstructures (porosity ≈90%) with moderate compress modulus (≈0.3 MPa), tensile strength (0.004 MPa), and high swelling ratio (≈3500%). Importantly, PQC sponge demonstrates superior hemostasis ability over commercially available CS sponge by inducing rapid hemagglutination, and exhibits significantly better antibacterial activity against both methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli by destroying cell membrane and causing the leakage of bioactive components such as potassium ion and β-galactosidase from treated bacterial. Furthermore, PQC sponge can efficiently promote cell proliferation. Significantly, the sponge greatly expedites the regeneration of MRSA-infected full-thickness skin wound in rabbit by successfully eradicating bacterial infection, and reducing inflammation. PQC sponge also improves both early angiogenesis and blood vessel maturation at the wound site. Overall, this multifunctional sponge is a promising wound dressing for clinical use and holds great potential for rapid clinical translation.