Polyphenol-enhanced wet adhesive hydrogel with synergistic mechanical activation and ROS scavenging for accelerating diabetic wound healing

Diabetic wound healing is severely affected by the vicious cycle of wound exposure and impaired repair ability. Here, a polyphenol-enhanced wet adhesion hydrogel with the synergistic effect of mechanical activation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging was developed to promote the healing of infected diabetic wounds. The hydrogel was copolymerized with acrylic acid (AAc), 1-vinylimidazole (VI), and tannic acid (TA) in dimethyl sulfoxide, followed by solvent exchange with water to obtain a strong toughness and wet adhesion hydrogel (PAAcVI-TA hydrogel). The introduction of TA not only enhanced the toughness and wet tissue adhesive strength of the PAAcVI-TA hydrogel but also conferred outstanding ROS scavenging performance, inflammatory inhibition, and vascular growth promotion. More importantly, the PAAcVI-TA hydrogel could transmit mechanical control force to wet skin through robust adhesion and mechanically contract diabetic wounds. After stretching, the tough PAAcVI-TA hydrogel presented excellent resilience, which allowed for long-term contraction of the diabetic wound, reduced bacterial infection, promoted granulation tissue formation and collagen deposition, and accelerated re-epithelialization. As a result, the PAAcVI-TA hydrogel, which combined mechanical activation with ROS scavenging, might provide a new approach to the effective treatment of diabetic wounds and other forms of chronic wounds.