Bio-based hydrogel patches made of κ-carrageenan enriched with degalactosylated xyloglucan for wound dressing applications

Hydrogels have become popular for biomedical applications, such as patches and scaffolds for tissue engineering, due to their high-water content, biocompatibility, and tunable physico-chemical and mechanical properties. For instance, chronic wounds remain one of the major global healthcare burdens and, therefore, demand sophisticated ways of managing dressings for fast wound healing to reduce pain, prevent infection, and accelerate healing. κ-Carrageenan (kC) is a polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds and has been widely considered a promising wound dressing material owing to its biocompatibility and hemostatic properties. Degalactosylated xyloglucan (dXG), obtained through the partial enzymatic removal of galactose from xyloglucan, has demonstrated biocompatibility, anti-inflammatory activity, and excellent scaffolding potential for cells. Both polymers show temperature-induced sol-to-gel transition; however, none of the two form hydrogels that can be used as wound dressings; dXG is too soft, while kC is too brittle, lacking adhesiveness and interconnected porosity. To address these limitations, this study explores interpenetrating hydrogel networks composed of kC and dXG. The resulting kC/dXG hydrogels demonstrate improved mechanical integrity due to the structural contribution of kC, while dXG imparts enhanced swelling capacity and surface adhesiveness. Together, these features make the kC/dXG hydrogel films promising candidates for bioactive wound dressings, yielding hydrogels with good mechanical stability due to kC and enhanced biological properties attributed to dXG.