A Shikonin-loaded smart dressing integrating self-adaptive release, visual monitoring, and enhanced healing for...

Diabetic wounds, characterized by hyperglycemic exudate and susceptibility to infection, constitute a significant clinical challenge that severely impedes healing. Hence, advanced dressings designed for diabetic wound management are urgently required. To address the challenges, a novel bilayer nanofiber dressing encapsulating Shikonin is developed in this work. The special bilayer structure allows for effective drainage of the exudate. By encapsulating Shikonin within a tailored polymer matrix, the dressing can leverage its pH-responsive properties to achieve both self-adaptive drug release (rapid in infected/alkaline wounds, sustained in healing/acidic wounds) and real-time visual monitoring of wound status via color change. In vitro and in vivo assays confirmed its superior antibacterial, antioxidant, and healing performance versus commercial gauze. Our findings illustrate that strategic drug selection enables a single dressing platform to integrate multiple functions, offering novel design strategies for developing next-generation smart wound dressings.