Collagen/Glutamate Composite Aerogels with Supramolecular Network Structures Fabricated by Regulating Self-Assembly Behavior for Drug Delivery System

Designing and developing multifunctional wound dressings with sustained drug-release capability is a promising strategy for minimizing the risks of wound infection and promoting wound healing. Collagen composite aerogels have been widely employed as a medical device building block, although they still fail to display competitive mechanical properties and sustained drug-release capability. Thus, we solve this challenge by pursuing a multi-scale design method, which utilizes glutamic acid (Glu) to regulate the collagen self-assembly behavior to obtain a network-structured collagen/glutamate composite aerogel with sustained drug release, biocompatibility, and hemostatic ability. Through structural and performance analysis, the Glu endows collagen composite aerogels with excellent structural stability and superior mechanical properties by regulating the intermolecular interaction between collagen molecules, which made the aerogels achieve a supramolecular network structure through the entanglement of high-density collagen fibrils and showed excellent sustained drug-release characteristics. Moreover, collagen/Glu composite aerogels also exhibited outstanding biocompatibility and hemostatic capability. This self-assembly strategy provides new insight aimed at collagen composite aerogels with supramolecular network structures and sustained drug-release capability, making them a promising candidate for wound dressings in future clinical applications.