Gelatin-Based Hydrogels Blended with Gellan as an Injectable Wound Dressing

Injectable scaffolds are of great interests for skin regeneration because they can fill irregularly shaped defects through minimally invasive surgical treatments. In this study, an injectable hydrogel from biopolymers is developed and its application as wound dressings is examined. Gelatin-based hydrogels were successfully prepared at body temperature upon blending with low content of gellan, and the synergetic effect on the gel formation was carefully characterized through rheological methods. The electrostatic complexation between gelatin and gellan was confirmed to contribute a continuous hydrogel network. The obtained blend hydrogel demonstrates remarkable shear-thinning and self-recovering properties. For antibacterial purpose, tannic acid was incorporated into the blend hydrogel. In addition, tannic acid-loaded blend hydrogel was verified to accelerate the wound healing on the mice model, significantly than the control groups. Thus, this paper presents a facile approach without chemical modification to construct injectable gelatin-based hydrogels, which have great potential as a wound dressing or tissue scaffold at body temperature.