Sodium Ascorbate-Accelerated Gelling Hydrogels With Rapid Self-Mineralized Capacity for Chronic Wounds

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Regenerative Medicine
• Wound Healing

Background:

• Chronic wounds present significant clinical challenges due to inflammation, oxidative stress, and infection.
• Diabetic wounds are particularly difficult to manage, requiring advanced therapeutic strategies.
• Current treatments often struggle to address the multifaceted nature of chronic wound pathology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel immunoregulatory hydrogel platform for enhanced chronic diabetic wound healing.
• To utilize sodium ascorbate (SA) for accelerated gelation and in situ silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) formation.
• To investigate the hydrogel's efficacy in managing inflammation, oxidative stress, and bacterial infection.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a hydrogel by mixing functionalized dextran with silver nitrate and SA.
• In situ self-mineralization to generate Ag NPs within the hydrogel matrix.
• Evaluation of the hydrogel in an infected diabetic wound model.

Main Results:

• The SA-accelerated hydrogel demonstrated ultrafast solidification and effective ROS scavenging.
• In situ generated Ag NPs provided multimodal antibacterial activity, reducing bacterial load.
• The hydrogel significantly promoted wound closure, alleviated oxidative stress, and inhibited inflammation.

Conclusions:

• The developed immunoregulatory hydrogel platform effectively facilitates infected chronic diabetic wound healing.
• The combination of SA and in situ Ag NPs offers a promising approach for wound management.
• This novel hydrogel shows high potential for clinical application in treating complex wounds.