Therapeutic β-carotene-loaded inulin-based multifunctional hydrogel for full-thickness skin wounds with polymicrobial infections

Deep, large-sized wounds are notorious to manage because of their longer healing times. Therefore, extra medical attention is required to protect the wounded area from bacterial infection, destructive free radicals, and local biological tissue damage to expedite wound healing. Therefore, the present study highlights the development of polysaccharide cationic polymer-based injectable hydrogel with inherent antibacterial and self-healing properties enriched with natural antioxidant β-carotene as a promising wound healing material. The polymeric hydrogel (G-OI-BPEI) was developed using a modified polysaccharide, oxidized inulin (OI), which contains multiple aldehyde functional groups. These groups crosslinked with amino (-NH₂) groups present in gelatin (G) and branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI) through Schiff base reactions (-C=N-) and hydrogen bonding interactions. Hydrogel formulations were fabricated with and without β-carotene. The fabricated hydrogels exhibited macro-porous morphology, good injectability, self-healing, and sustained β-carotene release over a time duration of 120 h. Also, the hydrogels demonstrated desirable hemocompatibility, biocompatibility, efficient in vitro scavenging of reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and bactericidal effects against E. coli and S. aureus. Moreover, G-OI-BPEI/β2 hydrogel showed promising wound healing properties with a contraction of 99 % in 14 days, resulting in better in vivo outcomes than the commercial product on full-thickness large, infected wounds. The promising results from the present study indicate that β-carotene-enriched injectable hydrogel may fill unmet needs in clinical settings to manage infectious wounds.