Development of Human Serum Albumin-Based Hydrogels for Potential Use as Wound Dressings

Protein-based materials such as human serum albumin (HSA) have demonstrated significant potential for the development of novel wound management materials. For the first time, the formation of HSA-based hydrogels was proposed using a combination of ther-mal- and ethanol-induced approaches. The combination of phosphate-buffered saline and limited (up to 20% v/v) ethanol content offers a promising strategy for fabricating human serum albumin-based hydrogels with tunable properties. The hydrogel formation was studied using in situ DLS for qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of the patterns of protein hydrogel formation through thermally induced gelation. The rheological proper-ties of human serum albumin-based hydrogels were investigated. Hydrogels synthesized via thermally induced gelation using a denaturing agent exhibit a dynamic viscosity ranging from 100 to 10,000 mPa·s. These human serum albumin-based hydrogels repre-sent a promising platform for developing topical therapeutic agents for wound manage-ment and tissue engineering applications. This study investigated the kinetics of tetracy-cline release from human serum albumin-based hydrogels in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and fetal bovine serum (FBS). All tested formulations of human serum albumin (HSA)-based hydrogels loaded with tetracycline (0.15 mg/mL) was demonstrated antibacterial activity of against Staphylococcus aureus strains.