Discussion
Taken together, this study presents the design of a potent photothermal antibacterial platform (Ag/GO-GelMA) aimed at enhancing the healing of infectious wounds. The platform utilizes a handy method to enhance the PCE of GO, thereby making notable progress in the utilization of GO nano-PHTAs.
Methods
Herein, we engineer the Ag/GO-GelMA platform by growing the Ag on the surface of GO and encapsulating the Ag/GO nanoparticles into the GelMA hydrogels.
Results
The resulting Ag/GO-GelMA platform demonstrates a significantly enhanced PCE (47.6%), surpassing that of pure GO (11.8%) by more than fourfold. As expected, the Ag/GO-GelMA platform, which was designed to integrate the benefits of Ag/GO nanoparticles (high PCE) and hydrogel (slowly releasing Ag+ to exert an inherent antibacterial effect), has been shown to exhibit exceptional antibacterial efficacy. Furthermore, transcriptome analyses demonstrated that the Ag/GO-GelMA platform could significantly down-regulate pathways linked to inflammation (the MAPK and PI3K-Akt pathways) and had the ability to promote cell migration.