Adhesive and stretchable nanofibrous
hydrogels have attracted extensive attraction in
wound dressings, especially for joint
wound treatment. However, adhesive
hydrogels tend to display poor stretchable behavior. It is still a significant challenge to integrate excellent adhesiveness and stretchability in a nanofibrous
hydrogel. Herein, a highly adhesive, stretchable, and breathable nanofibrous
hydrogel was developed via an in situ hybrid cross-linking strategy of electrospun nanofibers comprising
dopamine (DA) and
gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA). Benefiting from the balance of cohesion and adhesion based on photocross-linking of methacryloyl (MA) groups in GelMA and the chemical/physical reaction between GelMA and DA, the nanofibrous
hydrogels exhibited tunable adhesive and mechanical properties through varying MA substitution degrees of GelMA. The optimized GelMA60-DA exhibited 2.0 times larger tensile strength (2.4 MPa) with an elongation of about 200%, 2.3 times greater adhesive strength (9.1 kPa) on porcine skin, and 3.1 times higher
water vapor transmission rate (10.9 kg m-2 d-1) compared with
gelatin nanofibrous
hydrogels. In parallel, the GelMA60-DA nanofibrous
hydrogels could facilitate cell growth and accelerate wound healing. This work presented a type of breathable nanofibrous
hydrogels with excellent adhesive and stretchable capacities, showing great promise as
wound dressings.