Fabrication and characterization of nanocomposite hydrogel based N-succinyl chitosan/oxidized tragacanth gum/silver nanoparticles for biomedical materials

Nowadays, there is significant interest in hydrogels that have injectable, self-healing, and antibacterial properties. These features make them highly desirable for use in wound dressings. In this study, a class of biocompatible nanocomposite hydrogels was designed based on oxidized tragacanth gum (OTG), N-succinyl chitosan (NSC), and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for biomedical applications. To obtain the nanocomposite hydrogels containing different AgNP content, we utilized silver nanoparticles at concentrations of 4, 6, and 8 mg/mL. The OTG/NSC/Ag hydrogel demonstrated superior mechanical properties compared with the OTG/NSC hydrogel without AgNP. The hydrogels also exhibited rapid gelation ( < 60 s), sufficient swelling capacity, and outstanding injectability. The hemolysis and antibacterial tests demonstrated that the produced hydrogels possess non-hemolytic and antibacterial properties. In addition, the hydrogels loaded with AgNPs exhibited low toxicity to fibroblast cells (L929), thus demonstrating acceptable biocompatibility. These findings indicated that the prepared hydrogels could be utilized as novel wound dressing materials.