Multi-functional cotton fabric-based dressing for burn wounds: Integration of rGO/Polydopamine/Ag composite aerogel for enhanced wound healing

Aerogel dressings aid wound healing with exudate management. Although burn wound dressings have advanced, creating a low-cost option with exudate-absorbing, antimicrobial, hemostatic, and pro-healing properties remain vital. To achieve the anti-biofilm, hemostatic and anti-inflammatory with multiple effects, a multi-functional reduced graphene oxide/polydopamine/silver/cotton gauze (rGO/PDA/Ag/COT) dressing was designed by integrating the rGO/PDA/Ag aerogel with cotton gauze (COT) under the force of the CN bond. The dressing exhibited excellent biosafety (hemolysis rate < 5 %, cell viability >85 % on HUVEC cells), inhibited biofilms of E. coli and S. aureus by 98.66 % and 98.13 %, respectively (at 18 mg/mL extract), reduced hemostasis time by 25 % (322 ± 3.5 s vs. 427.5 ± 10.6 s for COT), and achieved a 91.93 ± 1.97 % wound closure rate in a rat deep second-degree burn model after 14 days. Because of antioxidant properties of PDA, the dressing effectively inhibited the production of inflammatory cells, upregulated TGF-β1 to promote VEGF expression, and enhanced the activity of VEGF and bFGF to stimulate endothelial cell and capillary formation in the burns healing. Given its numerous advantages, the rGO/PDA/Ag/COT dressing shows great potential for application in wound management and therapy.