Self-Evolving Hydrogel Dressing Temporally Accelerates Infected Diabetic Wound Healing

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Regenerative Medicine
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Diabetic wounds exhibit impaired redox and immune balance, increasing infection risk and delaying healing.
• Current therapies struggle to provide both potent antibacterial effects and dynamic microenvironment control for diabetic wound healing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a self-evolving hydrogel dressing with integrated silver nanozymes and iron-based nanoheterojunctions for sequential diabetic wound healing.
• To evaluate the dressing's ability to combat bacterial infections and modulate the wound microenvironment through different healing stages.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a hyaluronan/poly(aspartic acid) hydrogel dressing incorporating in situ Ag+ to Ag nanozyme conversion and Fe3N/Fe3O4 nanoheterojunctions (nHJ).
• Assessment of the dressing's antibacterial efficacy against multidrug-resistant bacteria, photodynamic/photothermal effects, reactive oxygen species scavenging, and oxygen generation.
• Evaluation of the dressing's impact on macrophage polarization, cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, and wound healing in a diabetic rat model.

Main Results:

• The hydrogel dressing demonstrated synergistic antibacterial action against biofilm-forming bacteria via photodynamic and photothermal effects.
• Integrated Ag nanozymes effectively scavenged reactive oxygen species and generated oxygen, promoting M1 to M2 macrophage repolarization.
• The dressing significantly accelerated wound healing in diabetic rats, evidenced by hemostasis, broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, enhanced cell proliferation, collagen deposition, and vascularization.

Conclusions:

• The developed hydrogel dressing offers a dynamic therapeutic strategy for infected diabetic wounds by combining robust antibacterial activity with temporal microenvironment modulation.
• This platform effectively guides wound healing through consecutive stages, addressing critical challenges in diabetic wound management.