A Visualizable Injectable Multifunctional Sericin Hydrogel with Facile Fabrication for Versatile Wound Care

Abstract

Significant challenges persist in developing multifunctional wound dressings that simultaneously maintain an optimal healing microenvironment, employ simple fabrication protocols, and maintain cost-effectiveness for clinical applications. In this study, we developed a visualized multifunctional injectable sericin hydrogel wound dressing with excellent bioactivity via the crosslinking of sericin (SS) with protocatechuic aldehyde (PA). The sericin hydrogel not only features a simple fabrication process and low production cost but also demonstrates exceptional moisturizing capacity, breathability, elasticity, absorbency, and biodegradability with weakly acidic degradation byproducts. Additionally, it exhibits robust antibacterial and antioxidant capacities, high biocompatibility, and remarkable promotion of cell migration. Given its superior performance, we employed it to repair full-thickness skin wounds in a mouse model. The sericin hydrogel effectively promoted wound healing, demonstrating its potential as a multifunctional dressing for cutaneous wound management.