Hydrogels have the properties of solid substances and are useful for medicine, e.g., in systems for the controlled release of drugs or as wound dressings. They isolate the wound from the external environment and constitute a barrier to microorganisms while still being permeable to oxygen. In the current study, hydrogels were formed from concentrated aqueous solutions of carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) via electron beam irradiation, with the presence of a crosslinking agent: poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate. The aim of the study was to compare the properties and action of biopolymer CMCS hydrogels with commercial ones and to select the best compositions for future research towards wound-dressing applications. The elasticity of the gel depended on the component concentrations and the irradiation dose employed to form the hydrogel. Young’s modulus for the tested hydrogels was higher than for the control material. The Live/Dead test performed on human fibroblasts confirmed that the analyzed hydrogels are not cytotoxic, and for some concentrations, they cause a slight increase in the number of cells compared to the control. The biocompatibility studies carried out on laboratory rats showed no adverse effect of hydrogels on animal tissues, confirming their biocompatibility and suggesting that CMCS hydrogels could be considered as wound-healing dressings in the future. Ionizing radiation was proven to be a suitable tool for CMCS hydrogel synthesis and could be of use in wound-healing therapy, as it may simultaneously sterilize the product.

This paper describes the results of the radiation-induced crosslinking of polysaccharides modified with hydroxypropyl and carboxymethyl functional groups, hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), respectively, without and with poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) as a crosslinking agent, to obtain dual stimuli-responsive hydrogels. The gels were characterized in terms of water uptake and gel fraction, parameters that mainly depend on the HPC–CMC compositions, but also on the macromer crosslinker content and the absorbed dose. The swelling of hydrogels is controlled by both the temperature, due to the amphiphilic character of HPC and pH, due to the anionic functional groups of CMC. In spite of a similar degree of substitution in both cellulose derivatives, 1.4 for HPC and 1.2 for CMC, the pH response of hydrogels with an equal content of both polysaccharides is considerably higher—a reduction in swelling of up to 95% with a decrease in the pH to 2 was recorded—than the response to thermal-stimulus—wherein a reduction in swelling of less than 70% with an increasing in temperature to 55 °C was found. These biopolymers-based hydrogels of specific, stimuli-responsive swelling properties are anticipated in applications where a combination of two stimuli is essential and biodegradation may be required.