Silk Protein-Based Smart Hydrogels Combining Sutureless Self-Adhesion, Skin Regeneration, and Sensing: A Novel Strategy for Wound Treatment

Severe skin injuries caused by external damage often disrupt the entire tissue architecture, yet conventional hydrogel dressings struggle to simultaneously achieve effective wound closure and functional skin regeneration. Herein, a sutureless self-adhesive, skin-regenerating, and sensing (3S) hydrogel dressing, fabricated by blending [2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride, itaconic acid, bioinspired methacrylated silk fibroin, and a bioinspired protocatechuic aldehyde-Fe 3+ complex through Schiff base dynamic cross-linking and facile photoinitiation, is developed. The resulting 3S dressing exhibits exceptional mechanical toughness, self-healing ability, high electrical conductivity, and excellent hemostatic ability. In both full-thickness skin incision and bacteria-infected wound models, the 3S dressing demonstrates superior tissue-sealing and antibacterial performance, promoting efficient wound closure and significantly accelerating the healing process. Compared to the control group, treatment with the 3S dressing resulted in a 23.92% increase in collagen deposition, a 160.19% increase in epidermal thickness, and a 14.05% improvement in the wound healing rate. Moreover, the dressing enables real-time detection and quantification of human motion and physiological signals, including respiratory activity and electrocardiogram (ECG), thereby facilitating health monitoring of injured individuals. This multifunctional 3S wound dressing integrates incision closure, tissue regeneration, and physiological signal monitoring, offering a novel and comprehensive approach to advanced wound care.