Biomaterials: A potential pathway to healing chronic wounds?

Abstract

Chronic dermal wounds are a devastating problem, which disproportionally affect individuals with conditions such as diabetes, paralysis, or simply old age. These wounds are extremely challenging to treat due to a heterogeneous combination of causative factors, creating a substantial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Despite their large impact, there is currently a startling lack of options for effectively treating the underlying biological changes that occur within the wounds. Biomaterials possess an enticing ability to provide new comprehensive approaches to healing these devastating wounds; advanced wound dressings are now being developed that enable the ability to coordinate temporal delivery of multiple therapeutics, protect sensitive biologics from degradation, and provide supportive matrices that encourage the growth of tissue. This positions biomaterials as a potential “conductor” of wound repair, allowing them to simultaneously address numerous barriers to healing, and in turn providing a promising pathway to innovative new technologies for driving successful healing.

Therapeutic compression materials and wound dressings for chronic venous insufficiency: A comprehensive review

“…Recently, Hussain et al systematically reviewed and reported a number of convincing evidences for bioactive materials embedded polymer‐based chronic wound healing modalities, as well as the latest and innovative therapeutic strategies for management of chronic nonhealing wounds (Hussain, Thu, Shuid, Katas, & Hussain, ; Shao et al, ). Related studies also introduced technical solutions in development of different biomaterials used in wounds healings (Mir et al, ; Murray, West, Cowin, & Farrugia, ; Pop & Almquist, ). Figure illustrates the classification of bioactive agent‐based dressings applied to treat CVI.…”

A Wirelessly Controlled Smart Bandage with 3D‐Printed Miniaturized Needle Arrays

“…There have been numerous research and clinical efforts testing different factors, peptides, or their combination for fueling various physiological processes leading to the healing of chronic wounds 4a,8. Due to the accessibility of cutaneous wounds, biological factors are usually delivered topically using dressings, ointments, or scaffolds 9.…”

An Extracellular Matrix‐Mimicking Hydrogel for Full Thickness Wound Healing in Diabetic Mice

“…The growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases and increasing life expectancy lead to the prevalence of chronic wounds globally . During wound repair and regeneration, the healing process consists of four phases including hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling .…”

“…The growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases and increasing life expectancy lead to the prevalence of chronic wounds globally. [1][2][3] During wound repair and regeneration, the healing process consists of four phases including hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. [4] In the early stage of healing, chemokines are released by tissuespecific cells and resident immune cells at the site of injury to establish a chemoattractant gradient that promotes the invasion of immune cells.…”