Novel collagen-based hydrogels with injectable, self-healing, wound-healing properties via a dynamic crosslinking interaction

Collagen-based hydrogels have gained significant popularity in biomedical applications; however, traditional collagen hydrogels are easily disabled for lack of self-healing properties due to their non-reversible bonds. Here, a self-healing collagen-based hydrogel has been developed based on dynamic network chemistry, consisting of dynamic imine linkages between collagen and dialdehyde guar gum, as well as diol-borate ester bonds between guar gum and borax. In addition, macromolecular interactions amongst macromolecules are involved. The above-mentioned interactions were validated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and DSC. The as-prepared collagen-based hydrogels showed good injectability and rapid self-healing capacity (within 3 min) as reflected from injection tests, optical microscope observations, rheological measurements, as well as self-healing studies. In addition, the collagen-based hydrogels showed accelerated wound-healing properties. This study offers a facile strategy to endow self-healing ability on collagen-based hydrogels without any external stimulus, which show great application potential as wound dressings. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry