Search Results (1,769)

Bacterial-mediated infections represent a major risk factor for chronic wounds. Numerous polymeric dressings have been proposed to reduce this incidence and promote wound healing. In the present investigation, chitosan/collagen/honey-based sponges were prepared by freeze-drying. The effect of honey incorporation at different concentrations on the physicochemical and antibacterial properties of the sponges was evaluated. The SEM images showed that the surface and cross-sections of all samples had a porous structure. The pore size gradually increased in the range of 78.14 to 126.9 μm due to the increase in honey content in the sponges. This property resulted in considerably higher porosity degrees (79.90–90.13%) and absorption rates (ranges of 1357–1665% in deionized water and 865–1938% in PBS solution) in honey-loaded systems. Conversely, the honey composite formulations exhibited a reduction in permeability, with WVTR values ranging from 131.01 to 99.39 gh⁻¹m⁻² and values of WVP from 0.3255 to 0.2118 gm⁻¹d⁻¹mm Hg⁻¹. The mechanical properties showed that adding honey made the sponges more flexible (12.49–7.95% MPa) but decreased elongation rates in the sponges (16.36–7.56%) due to higher pore heterogeneity. The antibacterial tests indicated that all treatments had inhibitory effects against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, E. coli, and L. monocytogenes. The results from cells viability assays and in vitro healing models using human keratinocytes demonstrate that chitosan/collagen/honey sponges represent a potential alternative for applications such as wound dressings to help treat skin ulcers. The physicochemical, antibacterial, and biocompatibility properties of chitosan/collagen/honey sponges indicated their potential as a promising alternative for clinical use. Full article

This manuscript reviews the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their incorporation into polymeric nanofiber composites. It discusses various synthesis methods, emphasizing eco-friendly biological approaches over chemical and physical ones due to their cost-effectiveness and reduced toxicity. The review emphasizes the enhanced antimicrobial properties of AgNPs and their composites, particularly in electrospun nanofibers, for diverse biomedical, environmental, and industrial applications. It also covers the characterization, properties, and mechanisms of AgNPs, along with the advantages of combining them with polymers such as PVA and PEO, as well as cyclodextrin, to create novel functional nanocomposites. Full article

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance drives the need for innovative and multifunctional therapeutic systems. In this study, a controlled-release system based on a bioactive film composed of gelatin, bacterial cellulose (BC), sericin, citric acid, PEG 400, and nisin was developed for topical applications in infected wound treatment. BC membranes were produced using Komagataeibacter xylinus and enzymatically treated to optimize dispersion within the polymer matrix. The resulting system exhibited a semi-rigid, homogeneous morphology with appropriate visual characteristics for dermatological use. Microbiological assays demonstrated significant antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and resistant Gram-negative strains (Escherichia coli and Enterobacter cloacae), attributed to the synergistic action of nisin and citric acid, which enhanced bacterial outer membrane permeability. The antioxidant capacity was confirmed through DPPH radical scavenging assays, indicating a progressive release of bioactive compounds over time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed good integration of biopolymers within the matrix. These results suggest that the strategic combination of natural biopolymers and antimicrobial agents produced a functional system with improved mechanical properties, a broadened antimicrobial spectrum, and promising potential as a bioactive wound dressing for the treatment of infected skin lesions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a common and serious complication of diabetes, often leading to infection, amputation, and reduced quality of life. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy has emerged as a promising treatment due to its potential to accelerate wound healing through growth factors and cytokines. Despite growing interest, evidence on PRP’s efficacy and safety in DFU management remains variable. This article critically reviews recent studies to evaluate the effectiveness of PRP in promoting ulcer healing, while examining methodological rigor, ethical considerations, and research parameters to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based assessment for clinical application. Materials and Methods: This review explores the biological mechanisms underlying platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as an adjunctive therapy for DFUs, focusing on its regenerative capabilities. PRP is an autologous concentration of platelets containing growth factors and bioactive molecules that promote angiogenesis, cellular proliferation, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Various application methods—topical, injectable, gel-based, and PRP-enhanced dressings—are examined. The review also evaluates the efficacy of PRP as monotherapy and in combination with other interventions such as debridement and split-thickness skin grafting. Results: Clinical studies suggest that PRP, particularly when used alongside surgical debridement or skin grafting, significantly enhances healing outcomes in patients with non-healing DFUs. It provides a biologically favorable environment for tissue regeneration while reducing inflammation and potentially exhibiting antimicrobial properties. However, variability in PRP preparation techniques, application protocols, and patient selection criteria presents challenges to standardization and broader clinical adoption. Conclusions: While PRP therapy demonstrates significant potential in the management of diabetic foot ulcers, further randomized controlled trials with standardized methodologies are essential to establish optimal treatment protocols and confirm long-term benefits. PRP offers a minimally invasive, autologous, and biologically active treatment modality that may serve as a vital component in the multidisciplinary approach to DFU management. Full article

Diabetes is emerging as a significant health and societal concern globally, impacting both young and old populations. In individuals with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), the wound healing process is hindered due to abnormal glucose metabolism and chronic inflammation. Minor injuries, blisters, or pressure sores can develop into chronic ulcers, which, if left untreated, may lead to serious infections, tissue necrosis, and eventual amputation. Current management techniques include debridement, wound dressing, oxygen therapy, antibiotic therapy, topical application of antibiotics, and surgical skin grafting, which are used to manage diabetic wounds and foot ulcers. This review focuses on a hydrogel-based strategy for phase-wise targeting of DFUs, addressing sequential stages of diabetic wound healing: hemostasis, infection, inflammation, and proliferative/remodeling phases. Hydrogels have emerged as a promising wound care solution due to their unique properties in providing a suitable wound-healing microenvironment. We explore natural polymers, including hyaluronic acid, chitosan, cellulose derivatives, and synthetic polymers such as poly (ethylene glycol), poly (acrylic acid), poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and poly (acrylamide), emphasizing their role in hydrogel fabrication to manage DFU through phase-dependent strategies. Recent innovations, including self-healing hydrogels, stimuli-responsive hydrogels, nanocomposite hydrogels, bioactive hydrogels, and 3D-printed hydrogels, demonstrate enhanced therapeutic potential, improving patient outcomes. This review further discusses the applicability of various hydrogels to each phase of wound healing in DFU treatment, highlighting their potential to advance diabetic wound care through targeted, phase-specific interventions. Full article

Hydrogels are water-rich polymeric networks mimicking the body’s extracellular matrix, making them highly biocompatible and ideal for precision medicine. Their “tunable” and “smart” properties enable the precise adjustment of mechanical, chemical, and physical characteristics, allowing responses to specific stimuli such as pH or temperature. These versatile materials offer significant advantages over traditional drug delivery by facilitating targeted, localized, and on-demand therapies. Applications range from diagnostics and wound healing to tissue engineering and, notably, cancer therapy, where they deliver anti-cancer agents directly to tumors, minimizing systemic toxicity. Hydrogels’ design involves careful material selection and crosslinking techniques, which dictate properties like swelling, degradation, and porosity—all crucial for their effectiveness. The development of self-healing, tough, and bio-functional hydrogels represents a significant step forward, promising advanced biomaterials that can actively sense, react to, and engage in complex biological processes for a tailored therapeutic approach. Beyond their mechanical resilience and adaptability, these hydrogels open avenues for next-generation therapies, such as dynamic wound dressings that adapt to healing stages, injectable scaffolds that remodel with growing tissue, or smart drug delivery systems that respond to real-time biochemical cues. Full article

The therapeutic management of extensive skin wounds in cats can be time-consuming and require multiple therapeutic interventions, which can have significant financial implications for pet owners. Reconstructive surgery is often necessary to close skin defects with tissue loss to provide a quicker patient recovery. Conventional therapies like systemic antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and local dressings are not always successful due to antibiotic resistance or a poor response, such as no or delayed healing. For more than a century, ozone has been utilized as an excellent disinfectant, but caution should be taken due to its oxidizing properties. Only in the past decade have numerous studies established therapeutic dose ranges for a wider medical use of ozone. The objective of this study was to clinically evaluate ozone therapy as a complementary treatment supporting and completing plastic and reconstructive surgery in 4 cats with extensive skin defects. The results obtained, following the local application of ozone therapy before and after skin reconstruction in our patients, encourage the use of ozone as a complementary therapy in the management of extensive skin wounds treated surgically by different reconstructive techniques. Full article

In this study, hydrogel dressings based on alginate and carboxymethylcellulose were developed, supplemented with extracts from Tagetes nelsonii, Agave americana, and Aloe vera gel, for the treatment and healing of wounds. For this purpose, the physical and mechanical characterization of the films was carried out using different concentrations of the crosslinker, calcium chloride. Additionally, T. nelsonii was the extract that exhibited the highest antioxidant capacity as well as in vivo wound-healing activity. Subsequently, plant extracts were added, the dressings were characterized, and antibacterial activity was determined by the Kirby–Bauer method against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results indicated that the prepared dressings have potential for use in wound treatment and healing, with the dressing containing T. nelsonii extract being the only one with antibacterial activity. Therefore, all of them can be used for acute wounds on body parts such as the palms of the hands, knees, elbows, and soles of the feet. Full article

If untreated, skin wounds can lead to severe complications. Depending on the type of injury, long-term antibiotic administration is often required, and this decreases patient compliance. This limitation could be addressed by applying dressings capable of preventing infections by controlling drug release to the wound site. In this research, biodegradable wound dressings were investigated, based on natural polymers chitosan and alginate and incorporating the broad-spectrum gentamicin as antibiotic. Specifically, gentamicin was loaded into alginate nanoparticles, which were then loaded into chitosan-based films. This approach aimed at obtaining a system capable of modulating antibiotic release. The obtained nanoparticles had an average diameter of 86 nm and polydispersity index of 0.15. Antibiotic loading was around 600 µg/mg, with loading efficiency close to 100%. Films incorporating nanoparticles were compared to control films, which contained only gentamicin. Results showed that nanoparticles incorporation decreased film’s swelling in phosphate buffer saline, thus leading to a decrease in burst release while cytocompatibility for human dermal fibroblasts was maintained. Antibacterial activity was confirmed against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, the antibiotic was released as a function of pH, with distinct behavior at pHs ranging from 7.4 to 5.5. This indicates that alginate nanoparticles dispersed in chitosan films effectively release gentamicin on demand. Full article

The unique properties present great prospects for polymeric ionic liquids (PILs) research in these areas, where progress and breakthrough technologies can be expected in the coming years. This brief review examines the latest work (2024–2025) and the prospects for using PILs as an effective component of sensor-related devices for medical or biological applications. Potentially, the PILs-based sensors can detect various movements in real time, which are necessary for high-performance wearable sensor platforms. The artificial electronic skin demonstrates high potential not only as a recording of body signals, but also as an effective wound dressing. The polymer actuators with PILs are indispensable in many applications. Full article

The progress in biopolymers and their composites as advanced materials for wound healing has revolutionized therapeutic approaches for skin regeneration. These materials can effectively integrate their inherent biocompatibility and biodegradability with the enhanced mechanical strength and customizable properties of polymers and functional additives. This review presents a detailed investigation of the design principles, classifications, and biomedical applications of biopolymeric composites, focusing on their capabilities to promote angiogenesis, exhibit antimicrobial activities, and facilitate controlled drug delivery. By overcoming the challenges of conventional wound dressings, such as inadequate exudate management, mechanical fragility, and cytotoxicity, these composites provide dynamic, stimuli-responsive platforms that can adapt to the wound microenvironment. This study further highlights innovative advances in nanoparticle-assisted reinforcement, fiber-based scaffolds, and multi-stimuli responsive smart delivery systems. Finally, the future perspective illustrates how the challenges related to long-term physiological stability, scalable manufacturing, and clinical implementation can be addressed. Overall, this article delivers a comprehensive framework for understanding the transformative impact of biopolymeric composites in next-generation wound care. Full article

The treatment of chronic wounds and pressure sores is an important challenge in the context of public health and the effectiveness of patient treatment. Therefore, new methods are being developed to reduce or, in extreme cases, to initiate and conduct the wound healing process. This article presents an innovative smart bandage, programmable using a smartphone, which generates small amplitude impulse vibrations. The communication between the smart bandage and the smartphone is realized using BLE. The possibility of programming the smart bandage allows for personalized therapy. Owing to the built-in MEMS sensor, the smart bandage makes it possible to monitor work during rehabilitation and implement an auto-calibration procedure. The flexible, openwork mechanical structure of the dressing was made in 3D printing technology, thanks to which the solution is easy to implement and can be used together with traditional dressings to create hybrid ones. Miniature electronic circuits and actuators controlled by the PWM signal were designed as replaceable elements; thus, the openwork structure can be treated as single-use. The smart bandage containing six actuators presented in this article generates oscillations in the range from about 40 Hz to 190 Hz. The system generates low-amplitude vibrations, below 1 g. The actuators were operated at a voltage of 1.65 V to reduce energy consumption. For comparison, the actuators were also operated at the nominal voltage of 3.17 V, as specified by the manufacturer. Full article

The application of conductive polymers in wound dressings presents great potential for accelerated wound healing since their high electrical conductivity and biocompatibility facilitate the delivery of external electrical stimuli to cells and tissues, promoting cell differentiation and proliferation. Electrospinning is a very straightforward method for the preparation of polymeric wound dressings capable of mimicking the extracellular matrix of skin, promoting hemostasis, absorbing wound exudate, allowing atmospheric oxygen permeation and maintaining an appropriately moist environment. In this work, in situ chemically polymerized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) was achieved through hyaluronic acid-doping. The synthesized PEDOT was used for the production of conductive and biodegradable chitosan (CS)/gelatin (GEL)/PEDOT electrospun meshes. Additionally, the randomly aligned meshes were crosslinked with a 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether and their physicochemical and mechanical properties were investigated. The results show that the incorporation of a conductive polymer led to an increase in conductivity of the solution, density and fiber diameter that influenced porosity, water uptake, and dissolvability and biodegradability of the meshes, while maintaining appropriate water vapor permeation values. Due to their intrinsic similarity to the extracellular matrix and cell-binding sequences, CS/GEL/PEDOT electrospun nanofibrous meshes show potential as conductive nanofibrous structures for electrostimulated wound dressings in skin tissue engineering applications. Full article

Biomaterials modified by antibacterial substances, including nanoparticles, open new opportunities for the effective treatment of infected wounds. Unfortunately, most publications focused only on experiments in vitro, with limited understanding of their potential for the clinic. This study evaluates the effectiveness in vivo of electrospun chitosan/polylactic acid (Ch/PLA) membranes enriched with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for purulent wound treatment. The composite biomaterial integrates chitosan’s biocompatibility and antimicrobial activity with PLA’s structural integrity, while AgNPs enhance antibacterial efficacy against major wound pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia aureus. A full-thickness purulent wound model was established in a rat model, and the animals were divided into three treatment groups: (i) Ch/PLA, (ii) Ch/PLA-AgNPs, and (iii) PLA-chlorhexidine (control). Wound healing was monitored over 21 days through macroscopic evaluation, histology, immunohistochemistry, and microbiological analysis. The Ch/PLA-AgNPs membranes significantly reduced bacterial colonization within 4–6 days, promoted granulation tissue formation, and accelerated epithelialization compared to the non-modified Ch/PLA scaffold. By day 15, complete wound closure was observed in the Ch/PLA-AgNPs group, comparable to PLA-chlorhexidine-treated wounds. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a controlled inflammatory response with a balanced macrophage M1/M2 transition, supporting efficient tissue regeneration. Furthermore, systemic toxicity assessments indicated no significant adverse effects on internal organs. These findings demonstrate that electrospun Ch/PLA-AgNPs membranes effectively accelerate purulent wound healing by combining antimicrobial protection with biocompatible tissue support. This innovative approach presents a promising alternative to conventional wound dressings and paves the way for clinical applications in managing infected wounds. Full article

Diabetic wounds are characterized by a refractory healing cycle resulting from the synergistic effects of hyperglycemic microenvironment, oxidative stress, bacterial infection, and impaired angiogenesis. Conventional hydrogel dressings, with limited functionality, struggle to address the complexities of chronic diabetic ulcers. Smart hydrogels, possessing biocompatibility, porous architectures mimicking extracellular matrix, and environmental responsiveness, have emerged as promising biomaterials for diabetic wound management. This review systematically elucidates the specific response mechanisms of smart hydrogels to wound microenvironmental stimuli, including pH, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), reactive oxygen species (ROS), and glucose levels, enabling on-demand release of antimicrobial agents and growth factors through dynamic bond modulation or structural transformations. Subsequently, the review highlights recent advances in novel hydrogel-based sensors fabricated via optical (photonic crystal, fluorescence) and electrochemical principles for real-time monitoring of glucose levels and wound pH. Finally, critical challenges in material development and scalable manufacturing of multifunctional hydrogel components are discussed, alongside prospects for precision diagnostics and therapeutics in diabetic wound care. Full article