Development of a biocompatible, low-cost reinforcement of methacrylated alginate hydrogels using synthetic crosslinking agents

Abstract

The skin is a vital organ that protects the human body, making it highly susceptible to injury. When wounds fail to heal properly, they can become chronic and prone to infection. Hydrogel-based wound dressings, made from natural and synthetic polymers, play a crucial role in wound management by enhancing the wound environment, providing a protective interface over the wound, retaining moisture, and facilitating ease of removal which supports the formation of new tissue. Among these, methacrylated alginate hydrogels show promising biological potential but require improvement in mechanical strength to meet clinical demands due to their large moisture uptake capacity. In this study, methacrylated alginate hydrogels were reinforced with four low-cost (meth)acrylic crosslinkers: ethylene glycol diacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate and pentaerythritol triacrylate, to improve mechanical properties without compromising biological efficacy. The best formulation, using the first one, demonstrated a swelling capacity of 40 g of water per g of hydrogel, significantly outperforming commercial products like Kaltostat (25 g/g) and AquacelAg (18 g/g). Its mechanical strength (∼0.06 MPa) was comparable to DuoDERM-ET (0.07 MPa) and Mepilex (∼0.05 MPa). The hydrogel also demonstrated excellent in vitro biocompatibility, positioning it as a simple, cost-effective alternative to reinforce methacrylated hydrogels so they eventually become possibly useful as wound dressings, mechanically and physically strongly competing with commercial dressings, while still offering room for future bioactive development to enhance wound healing.