Photo-Responsive Hydrogel for Contactless Dressing Change to Attenuate Secondary Damage and Promote Diabetic Wound Healing.

Abstract

Dressing change is a significant and inevitable process during wound healing. Possible secondary damage caused through dressing removal may impose a great threat on wound recovery, thus resulting in healing delays and ultimately a higher cost of hospitalization. Hence, a non-contact refreshable dressing with an ease of operation is of great desire, especially for chronic wounds where a long-term and repeated dressing change would be performed. Herein, an all-light-operated hydrogel dressing that would achieve a fast and remote-controllable dressing change (30 s for gelation/4 min for dissolution upon light irradiation) for chronic wounds is presented. In a diabetic murine model, substantially improved wound healing within 2-3 weeks is observed due to attenuated secondary damage during repeated dressing changes. Moreover, a promising facilitation of the healing processes of epithelialization, collagen deposition, cell proliferation, and inflammatory regulation is also detected, representing a synergistic effect of the photo-responsive hydrogel dressing for therapeutic efficiency.