Abstract: A hydrogel dressing based on bacterial cellulose (BC), which is grafted with quaternary ammonium functional and crosslinked with the gelatin-heparin system, is prepared to provide the features mainly concerning softness, high swelling ratio, antibacterial property, and biocompatibility. An innovation of preparation is that the BC is beaten into short-chain scaffolds to improve the efficiency of grafting, which not only simplifies the preparation process but also avoids the biotoxicity caused by the introduction of toxic catalyst such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or uncertain toxic side products in long-chain grafting. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that the QBC/Hep/Gel composite hydrogel possesses a three-dimensional mesh structure with high porosity. The hydrogel shows outstanding water management performance indicated by the swelling ratio of 1476%, water retention ratio of more than 90% at 120 h, and moisture permeability of 3296 g m^-2 24 h^-1. The antibacterial experiment is implemented with staphylococcus aureus, and the antibacterial effect is represented by an inhibition zone of 3 cm in diameter. In vivo animal experiments suggested that QBC/Hep/Gel could effectively promote epithelial reconstruction, collagen deposition, and angiogenesis in normal wounds, reduce inflammation, and accelerate wound healing. All these results indicate that the proposed QBC/Hep/Gel hydrogel is a potential composite for antibacterial dressing.

Key words: Antibacterial dressings, Hydrogel dressings, Wound healing, Cross-linking