Injectable and adhesive hydrogels for dealing with wounds

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The development of wound dressing materials that combine healing properties, ability to self-repair the material damages, skin-friendly adhesive nature, and competent mechanical properties have surpassing functional importance in healthcare. Due to their specificity, hydrogels have been recognized as a new gateway in biological materials to treat dysfunctional tissues. The design and creation of injectable hydrogel-based scaffolds have extensively progressed in recent years to improve their therapeutic efficacy and to pave the way for their easy minimally invasive administration. Hence, injectable hydrogel biomaterials have been prepared to eventually translate into minimally invasive therapy and pose a lasting effect on regenerative medicine.

Areas Covered

This review highlights the recent development of adhesive and injectable hydrogels that have applications in wound healing and wound dressing. Such hydrogel materials are not only expected to improve therapeutic outcomes but also to facilitate the easy surgical process in both wound healing and dressing.

Expert Opinion

Wound healing seems to be an appealing approach for treating countless life-threatening disorders. With the average increase of life expectancy in human societies, an increase in demand for injectable skin replacements and drug delivery carriers for chronic wound healing is expected.

KEYWORDS:

• Adhesive
• biomaterials
• injectable hydrogel
• medical applications
• tissue engineering
• wound healing

Article highlights

• The globally debilitating ailment that affects millions of people is related to chronic wounds.

• Traditional dressings have been progressively replaced by multifunctional bioactive ones, which are based on biopolymers such as hydrogels, and are loaded by therapeutic agents for specific wound healing purposes.

• Hydrogels are excellent materials that can be engineered to be adhesive and injectable.

• The antibacterial capability, injectability, and enhanced tissue adhesion are the more attractive features of the hydrogels in adhesive fields.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of Interests

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

G Orive wishes to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry (University of the Basque Country), and Competitiveness (SAF2016-76150-R and BFU2017–82421-P) and technical assistance from the ICTS NANBIOSIS (Drug Formulation Unit, U10) at the University of the Basque Country. We also appreciate the support from the Basque Country Government (Grupos Consolidados, No ref: IT907-16). We also appreciate the support from the Basque Country Government (Grupos Consolidados, No ref: IT907-16). This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovationprogramme under grant agreement No 951747. Also, this study was supported by a grant from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran (Grant No: 64103).