Multi-functional cotton fabric-based dressing for burn wounds: Integration of rGO/Polydopamine/Ag composite aerogel for enhanced wound healing
Baoxia Xue, Ziyang Shao, Jing Liu, Yong Liu, Mei Niu, Yongzhen Yang, Li Zhang
Abstract
Aerogel dressings aid wound healing with exudate management. Although burn wound dressings have advanced, creating a low-cost option with exudate-absorbing, antimicrobial, hemostatic, and pro-healing properties remain vital. To achieve the anti-biofilm, hemostatic and anti-inflammatory with multiple effects, a multi-functional reduced graphene oxide/polydopamine/silver/cotton gauze (rGO/PDA/Ag/COT) dressing was designed by integrating the rGO/PDA/Ag aerogel with cotton gauze (COT) under the force of the CN bond. The dressing exhibited excellent biosafety (hemolysis rate < 5 %, cell viability >85 % on HUVEC cells), inhibited biofilms of E. coli and S. aureus by 98.66 % and 98.13 %, respectively (at 18 mg/mL extract), reduced hemostasis time by 25 % (322 ± 3.5 s vs. 427.5 ± 10.6 s for COT), and achieved a 91.93 ± 1.97 % wound closure rate in a rat deep second-degree burn model after 14 days. Because of antioxidant properties of PDA, the dressing effectively inhibited the production of inflammatory cells, upregulated TGF-β1 to promote VEGF expression, and enhanced the activity of VEGF and bFGF to stimulate endothelial cell and capillary formation in the burns healing. Given its numerous advantages, the rGO/PDA/Ag/COT dressing shows great potential for application in wound management and therapy.