M1 macrophage accumulation and excessive inflammation are commonly encountered issues in diabetic wounds and can fail in the healing process. Hence, hydrogel dressings with immunoregulatory capacity have great promise in the clinical practice of diabetic wound healing. However, current immunoregulatory hydrogels are always needed for complex interventions and high‐cost treatments, such as cytokines and cell therapies. In this study, a novel glycyrrhizic acid (GA)‐based hybrid hydrogel dressing with intrinsic immunoregulatory properties is developed to promote rapid diabetic wound healing. This hybrid hydrogel consists of interpenetrating polymer networks composed of inorganic Zn2+‐induced self‐assembled GA and photo‐crosslinked methyl acrylated silk fibroin (SF), realizing both excellent injectability and mechanical strength. Notably, the SF/GA/Zn hybrid hydrogel can regulate macrophage responses in the inflammatory microenvironment, circumventing the use of any additives. The immunomodulatory properties of the hydrogel can be harnessed for safe and efficient therapeutics that accelerate the three phases of wound repair and serve as a promising dressing for the management of diabetic wounds.
Most commonly used wound dressings have severe problems, such as an inability to adapt to wound shape or a lack of antibacterial capacity, affecting their ability to meet the requirements of clinical applications. Here, a nanocomposite hydrogel (XKP) is developed by introducing polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) into a food gum matrix (XK, consisting of xanthan gum and konjac glucomannan, both FDA-approved food thickening agents) for skin wound healing. In this system, the embedded PDA NPs not only interact with the food gum matrix to form a hydrogel with excellent mechanical strength, but also act as photothermal transduction agents to convert near-infrared laser radiation to heat, thereby triggering bacterial death. Moreover, the XKP hydrogel has high elasticity and tunable water content, enabling it to adapt to the shape of the wound and insulate it, providing a moist environment suitable for healing.
In-vivo
skin wound healing results clearly demonstrate that XKP can significantly accelerate the healing of wounds by reducing the inflammatory response and promoting vascular reconstruction. In summary, this strategy provides a simple and practical method to overcome the drawbacks of traditional wound dressings, and provides further options when choosing suitable wound healing materials for clinical applications.
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