Abstract
Infectious wounds have increasingly become a significant clinical challenge due to their high incidence and suboptimal treatment outcomes. An ideal wound dressing would be a smart, in situ-formed material with exceptional antibacterial properties and the ability to eliminate biofilms, thereby facilitating effective wound closure. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an attractive candidate for wound healing applications due to its unique characteristics, including high water retention, flexibility, biocompatibility, and substantial adsorption capacity. However, its limited antibacterial activity constrains its use in skin wound healing. In this work, we employed BC as a matrix material, silver nanoparticles (Ag) as antibacterial agents, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) as a cell growth-promoting factor to enhance the healing of infected chronic wounds. The resulting BC/Ag/GM-CSF composite demonstrated excellent blood compatibility, cell compatibility, and antibacterial efficacy. Additionally, the BC/Ag/GM-CSF composite film shows promising potential as a wound dressing for both acute and chronic infectious wounds.