Search Results (22)

Traditional wound and burn treatments often fall short in balancing antimicrobial efficacy, patient comfort, and ease of application. This study introduces a novel, transparent, thermoresponsive sol–gel formulation incorporating polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) for advanced topical therapy. Utilizing Poloxamer 407 as a biocompatible carrier, the formulation remains a sprayable liquid at room temperature and instantly gels upon contact with body temperature, enabling painless, pressure-free application on sensitive, injured skin. Comprehensive in vitro and in vivo evaluations confirmed the formulation’s broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy (≥5 log₁₀ reduction in 30 s), high biocompatibility (viability > 70% in fibroblasts), non-irritancy (OECD 425-compliant), and physical stability across three months. Importantly, the formulation maintained fibroblast migration capacity—crucial for wound regeneration—while exhibiting rapid sol-to-gel transition at ~34 °C. These findings highlight the system’s potential as a next-generation wound dressing with enhanced user compliance, transparent monitoring capability, and rapid healing support, particularly in disaster or emergency scenarios. Full article

The treatment of burn injuries remains a significant global challenge. Although conventional cellulose-based dressings are still the dominant clinical choice, chitosan-based burn wound dressing materials have emerged as a promising alternative due to their unique physicochemical properties and biocompatibility. In this mini-review, we aim to provide a summary of recent advances in chitosan-based dressing materials and highlight their advantages in the treatment of burn wounds. Specifically, we first outline the chemical structure and synthesis methods of chitosan and its derivatives. Subsequently, various forms of chitosan-based dressings are introduced, with a particular focus on hydrogels and micro/nanofibers dressings, along with an overview of their preparation methods. Considering the microenvironment of the burn wound site, we then summarize the design principles and clinical efficacy of chitosan-based dressings with antimicrobial and/or antioxidative activity. Additionally, the applications of chitosan dressings in tissue engineering for burn treatment are also discussed, including growth factor delivery, gene therapy, and stem cell-based treatments. Finally, we examine the main challenges of chitosan-based dressing materials and the potential future directions. Through this mini-review, we expect to provide new perspectives for the development of wound dressings for burn care. Full article

The delayed healing and infection risks associated with chronic wounds and burns pose significant clinical challenges. Traditional dressings provide basic coverage but lack the bioactive properties needed for tissue regeneration and antimicrobial protection. In this study, we developed zinc alginate hydrogel-coated traditional wound dressings (WD@AlgZn) and evaluated their physicochemical properties, antimicrobial performance, and in vivo healing efficacy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a uniform coating of the zinc alginate network on dressing fibers, while Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the successful incorporation of zinc ions. Antimicrobial assays further demonstrated that WD@AlgZn reduced bacterial loads (CFU/mL counts) by several orders of magnitude for both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli compared to uncoated controls. An in vivo rat burn wound model exhibited accelerated wound closure when using WD@AlgZn dressings compared to conventional wound care approaches, achieving a 90.75% healing rate by day 21, significantly outperforming the silver sulfadiazine (52.32%), uncoated-dressing (46.58%), and spontaneous-healing (37.25%) groups. Histological analysis confirmed enhanced re-epithelialization, neovascularization, and reduced inflammation in WD@AlgZn-treated tissues. The findings suggest that WD@AlgZn offers a promising alternative for advanced wound management, combining structural robustness with bioactive properties to support efficient wound healing and infection control. These results provide valuable insights into the potential clinical applications of metal-ion cross-linked biopolymeric hydrogel dressings for next-generation wound care strategies. Full article

Severe burns are among the most traumatic injuries, characterized by tissue damage, systemic inflammation, significant fluid shifts, and a high risk of complications such as infections, organ failure, anemia, malnutrition, and psychological trauma. This article reviews recent literature from the PubMed and Google Scholar databases to outline critical components of burn care, from initial resuscitation and stabilization through rehabilitation. Key topics include early airway management to prevent respiratory compromise, meticulous fluid resuscitation to maintain tissue perfusion while avoiding complications like fluid overload, and optimal pain management. It also discusses nutritional support tailored to the burn patient’s hypermetabolic state and surgical techniques like early debridement and skin grafting. Beyond physical recovery, the review emphasizes the importance of addressing the psychological impact of burn injuries, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, which can significantly affect long-term outcomes. By integrating the expertise of a multidisciplinary team with a personalized approach and practical recommendations, this review aims to provide clinicians with a comprehensive framework for managing severe burns, from the initial emergency response to the challenges of inpatient care and, finally, rehabilitation. Full article

Burn wounds represent a complex clinical challenge, primarily due to their high susceptibility to infections and the frequent formation of the biofilm, which significantly hinder the healing process. Therefore, effective infection prevention and management are critical components of burn wound care. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current and emerging antimicrobial strategies in burn management, with a particular focus on alternative approaches to conventional antiseptics and antibiotics. This manuscript highlights the role of metals and metal-based agents, including silver, zinc oxide, and copper compounds, alongside plant-derived bioactive substances such as aloe vera, marigold, and turmeric. Additionally, the potential of antimicrobial peptides and probiotics as innovative therapeutic options is explored, emphasizing their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and pro-healing properties. Finally, this review presents an analysis of recent patents in the field of burn wound care, offering insights into current trends and future directions in the development of advanced wound dressings. By addressing both established and novel strategies, this review aims to provide a valuable resource for clinicians, researchers, and innovators seeking to improve outcomes in burn wound management. Full article

Burns are common injuries, but their treatment remains challenging due to the complex nature of the wound healing process. Burn wounds are classified into different categories based on their size and depth. Treatment modalities vary significantly across these categories, primarily focusing on the inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling phases of burn wound healing. This review summarizes current research on various approaches to enhance burn wound recovery, including advancements in wound dressings, the use of platelet-rich plasma, stem cells, their soluble factors primarily in the form of secretomes or extracellular vesicles, and nano-technologies. Additionally, advancements in modernized traditional medicine are discussed to give a new aspect for burn wound healing. This review also summarizes the barriers in translating bench research to clinical practice in burn wound treatment methods. For an effective translation, researchers and industrial partners should work more closely, while regulatory bodies should streamline the approval procedure. Full article

Severe skin injuries such as burns and chronic wounds are a subject of interest in the medical field, as they require much attention. These types of wounds are susceptible to serious complications, which can worsen the health of patients and reduce their quality of life. Hydrogels have emerged as innovative wound dressings for treating acute and chronic wounds, including burns, diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, and pressure ulcers. These polymeric networks provide a moist wound environment, promote cellular migration, and offer antimicrobial properties, being recognized as superior to conventional dressings. This review aims to explore recent advancements in hydrogel-based wound dressings, emphasizing the state-of-the-art technologies used for this purpose and the trend of achieving personalized therapeutic approaches. Despite the promising in vitro and in vivo findings described in this review, further clinical validation and large-scale manufacturing optimizations are required for widespread clinical adoption. Full article

Alginate is a natural biopolymer widely studied for pharmaceutical applications due to its biocompatibility, low toxicity, and mild gelation abilities. This review summarizes recent advances in alginate-based encapsulation systems for targeted drug delivery. Alginate formulations like microparticles, nanoparticles, microgels, and composites fabricated by methods including ionic gelation, emulsification, spray drying, and freeze drying enable tailored drug loading, enhanced stability, and sustained release kinetics. Alginate microspheres prepared by spray drying or ionic gelation provide gastric protection and colon-targeted release of orally delivered drugs. Alginate nanoparticles exhibit enhanced cellular uptake and tumor-targeting capabilities through the enhanced permeation and retention effect. Crosslinked alginate microgels allow high drug loading and controlled release profiles. Composite alginate gels with cellulose, chitosan, or inorganic nanomaterials display improved mechanical properties, mucoadhesion, and tunable release kinetics. Alginate-based wound dressings containing antimicrobial nanoparticles promote healing of burns and chronic wounds through sustained topical delivery. Although alginate is well-established as a pharmaceutical excipient, more extensive in vivo testing is needed to assess clinical safety and efficacy of emerging formulations prior to human trials. Future opportunities include engineered systems combining stimuli-responsiveness, active targeting, and diagnostic capabilities. In summary, this review discusses recent advances in alginate encapsulation techniques for oral, transdermal, and intravenous delivery, with an emphasis on approaches enabling targeted and sustained drug release for enhanced therapeutic outcomes. Full article

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 11 million people suffer from burns every year, and 180,000 die from them. A burn is a condition in which heat, chemical substances, an electrical current or other factors cause tissue damage. Burns mainly affect the skin, but can also affect deeper tissues such as bones or muscles. When burned, the skin loses its main functions, such as protection from the external environment, pathogens, evaporation and heat loss. Depending on the stage of the burn, the patient’s condition and the cause of the burn, we need to choose the most appropriate treatment. Personalization and multidisciplinary collaboration are key to the successful management of burn patients. In this comprehensive review, we have collected and discussed the available treatment options, focusing on recent advances in topical treatments, wound cleansing, dressings, skin grafting, nutrition, pain and scar tissue management. Full article

Hypertrophic scars (HTSs) are pathological structures resulting from chronic inflammation during the wound healing process, particularly in complex injuries like burns. The aim of this work is to propose Biofiber PF (biodegradable fiber loaded with Pirfenidone 1.5 w/w), an electrospun advanced dressing, as a solution for HTSs treatment in complex wounds. Biofiber has a 3-day antifibrotic action to modulate the fibrotic process and enhance physiological healing. Its electrospun structure consists of regular well-interconnected Poly-L-lactide-co-poly-ε-caprolactone (PLA-PCL) fibers (size 2.83 ± 0.46 µm) loaded with Pirfenidone (PF, 1.5% w/w), an antifibrotic agent. The textured matrix promotes the exudate balance through mild hydrophobic wettability behavior (109.3 ± 2.3°), and an appropriate equilibrium between the absorbency % (610.2 ± 171.54%) and the moisture vapor transmission rate (0.027 ± 0.036 g/min). Through its finer mechanical properties, Biofiber PF is conformable to the wound area, promoting movement and tissue oxygenation. These features also enhance the excellent elongation (>500%) and tenacity, both in dry and wet conditions. The ancillary antifibrotic action of PF on hypertrophic scar fibroblast (HSF) for 3 days downregulates the cell proliferation over time and modulates the gene expression of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) at 48–72 h. After 6 days of treatment, a decrement of α-SMA protein levels was detected, proving the potential of biofiber as a valid therapeutic treatment for HTSs in an established wound healing process. Full article

For decades, tissue regeneration has been a challenging issue in scientific modeling and human practices. Although many conventional therapies are already used to treat burns, muscle injuries, bone defects, and hair follicle injuries, there remains an urgent need for better healing effects in skin, bone, and other unique tissues. Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing and real-time monitoring technologies have enabled the creation of tissue-like membranes and the provision of an appropriate microenvironment. Using tissue engineering methods incorporating 3D printing technologies and biomaterials for the extracellular matrix (ECM) containing scaffolds can be used to construct a precisely distributed artificial membrane. Moreover, advances in smart sensors have facilitated the development of tissue regeneration. Various smart sensors may monitor the recovery of the wound process in different aspects, and some may spontaneously give feedback to the wound sites by releasing biological factors. The combination of the detection of smart sensors and individualized membrane design in the healing process shows enormous potential for wound dressings. Here, we provide an overview of the advantages of 3D printing and conventional therapies in tissue engineering. We also shed light on different types of 3D printing technology, biomaterials, and sensors to describe effective methods for use in skin and other tissue regeneration, highlighting their strengths and limitations. Finally, we highlight the value of 3D bioengineered membranes in various fields, including the modeling of disease, organ-on-a-chip, and drug development. Full article

Hydrogels are widely used in wound dressings due to their moisturizing properties and biocompatibility. However, traditional hydrogel dressings cannot monitor wounds and provide accurate treatment. Recent advancements focus on hydrogel dressings with integrated monitoring and treatment functions, using sensors or intelligent materials to detect changes in the wound microenvironment. These dressings enable responsive treatment to promote wound healing. They can carry out responsive dynamic treatment in time to effectively promote wound healing. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive reviews of hydrogel wound dressings that incorporate both wound micro-environment monitoring and treatment functions. Therefore, this review categorizes hydrogel dressings according to wound types and examines their current status, progress, challenges, and future trends. It discusses various wound types, including infected wounds, burns, and diabetic and pressure ulcers, and explores the wound healing process. The review presents hydrogel dressings that monitor wound conditions and provide tailored treatment, such as pH-sensitive, temperature-sensitive, glucose-sensitive, pressure-sensitive, and nano-composite hydrogel dressings. Challenges include developing dressings that meet the standards of excellent biocompatibility, improving monitoring accuracy and sensitivity, and overcoming obstacles to production and commercialization. Furthermore, it provides the current status, progress, challenges, and future trends in this field, aiming to give a clear view of its past, present, and future. Full article

Wound healing is a complex process that can be further complicated in chronic wounds, leading to prolonged healing times, high healthcare costs, and potential patient morbidity. Nanotechnology has shown great promise in developing advanced wound dressings that promote wound healing and prevent infection. The review article presents a comprehensive search strategy that was applied to four databases, namely Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar, using specific keywords and inclusion/exclusion criteria to select a representative sample of 164 research articles published between 2001 and 2023. This review article provides an updated overview of the different types of nanomaterials used in wound dressings, including nanofibers, nanocomposites, silver-based nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, and polymeric nanoparticles. Several recent studies have shown the potential benefits of using nanomaterials in wound care, including the use of hydrogel/nano silver-based dressings in treating diabetic foot wounds, the use of copper oxide-infused dressings in difficult-to-treat wounds, and the use of chitosan nanofiber mats in burn dressings. Overall, developing nanomaterials in wound care has complemented nanotechnology in drug delivery systems, providing biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials that enhance wound healing and provide sustained drug release. Wound dressings are an effective and convenient method of wound care that can prevent wound contamination, support the injured area, control hemorrhaging, and reduce pain and inflammation. This review article provides valuable insights into the potential role of individual nanoformulations used in wound dressings in promoting wound healing and preventing infections, and serves as an excellent resource for clinicians, researchers, and patients seeking improved healing outcomes. Full article

Here we present for the first time a potential wound dressing material implementing aptamers as binding entities to remove pathogenic cells from newly contaminated surfaces of wound matrix-mimicking collagen gels. The model pathogen in this study was the Gram-negative opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which represents a considerable health threat in hospital environments as a cause of severe infections of burn or post-surgery wounds. A two-layered hydrogel composite material was constructed based on an established eight-membered focused anti-P. aeruginosa polyclonal aptamer library, which was chemically crosslinked to the material surface to form a trapping zone for efficient binding of the pathogen. A drug-loaded zone of the composite released the C14R antimicrobial peptide to deliver it directly to the bound pathogenic cells. We demonstrate that this material combining aptamer-mediated affinity and peptide-dependent pathogen eradication can quantitatively remove bacterial cells from the “wound” surface, and we show that the surface-trapped bacteria are completely killed. The drug delivery function of the composite thus represents an extra safeguarding property and thus probably one of the most important additional advances of a next-generation or smart wound dressing ensuring the complete removal and/or eradication of the pathogen of a freshly infected wound. Full article

Skin wounds have imposed serious socioeconomic burdens on healthcare providers and patients. There are just more than 25,000 burn injury-related deaths reported each year. Conventional treatments do not often allow the re-establishment of the function of affected regions and structures, resulting in dehydration and wound infections. Many nanocarriers, such as lipid-based systems or biobased and biodegradable polymers and their associated platforms, are favorable in wound healing due to their ability to promote cell adhesion and migration, thus improving wound healing and reducing scarring. Hence, many researchers have focused on developing new wound dressings based on such compounds with desirable effects. However, when applied in wound healing, some problems occur, such as the high cost of public health, novel treatments emphasizing reduced healthcare costs, and increasing quality of treatment outcomes. The integrated hybrid systems of lipid-based nanocarriers (LNCs) and polymer-based systems can be promising as the solution for the above problems in the wound healing process. Furthermore, novel drug delivery systems showed more effective release of therapeutic agents, suitable mimicking of the physiological environment, and improvement in the function of the single system. This review highlights recent advances in lipid-based systems and the role of lipid-based carriers and biodegradable polymers in wound healing. Full article