Accelerating healing: the power of gelatin-based wound dressings

Compared with traditional dressings, natural polymers such as gelatin exhibit excellent biocompatibility and hemostasis capacity, but they are limited by poor mechanical strength and rapid degradation. To address these defects, a series of gelatin-based composite dressings including metal-gelatin, natural product-gelatin and synthetic polymer-gelatin hybrids have been developed, which achieve remarkable improvements in wound healing efficiency, structural stability and antibacterial capacity. For instance, a silver‑gelatin‑cellulose hydrogel achieved 92.6% wound healing in mice after two weeks, a 34% increase over the silver‑free control (69.1%). Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels incorporating reduced graphene oxide remained intact for 28 days in phosphate buffer saline (PBS), whereas native gelatin degrades within hours. Gelatin‑silver cryogels provided complete antibacterial activity against infected burns and superior fluid absorption. These quantitative improvements in healing rate, stability, and antimicrobial efficacy demonstrate that hybrid gelatin dressings represent a promising direction for biomaterial research. This review systematically summarizes conventional and novel gelatin‑based dressings and discusses their advantages, existing challenges, and future development prospects.