Electroactive anti-oxidant polyurethane elastomers with shape memory property as non-adherent wound dressing to enhance wound healing

•Electroactive elastomers showed excellent mechanical and shape memory properties.•Electroactive polyurethane films showed good biocompatibility and anti-oxidant capacity.•Electroactive polyurethane greatly enhanced proliferation of L929 cells.•Electroactive polyurethane dressings significantly promoted the in vivo wound healing. Development of wound dressings that not only have multiple advantages including good barrier properties, elasticity and shape memory properties, but also show anti-infection, anti-oxidative and promote cell adhesion, proliferation to enhance wound healing process, remains an ongoing challenge in the skin tissue engineering. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of electroactive shape memory polyurethane-urea elastomers by combining the mechanical properties of polycaprolactone (PCL) segments, wettability of polyethylene glycol (PEG) segments and electroactivity of aniline trimer (AT) segments, as antibacterial, anti-oxidant and electroactive film dressing for cutaneous wound healing. The films displayed suitable hydrophilicity and swelling ratio, excellent mechanical and shape memory properties, electroactivity, free radical scavenging capacity, non-adherent property and biocompatibility. Excitingly, the electroactive film with an optimal concentration of 12 wt% AT promoted mouse fibroblasts (L929) adhesion and proliferation, and it also significantly accelerated in vivo wound healing process than no-electroactive film and commercial dressing (Tegaderm™ film) through promoting granulation tissue thickness and collagen deposition in a full-thickness skin defect model. Moreover, after loading with vancomycin as antibacterial agents, the rate of wound healing is further enhanced. In summary, the electroactive shape memory polyurethane-urea films significantly promoted in vivo wound healing process attributed to its multifunctional properties indicated that they are excellent candidates as film wound dressing.