A dynamically phase-adaptive regulating hydrogel promotes ultrafast anti-fibrotic wound healing

Fan Zhang, Haijuan Zhang, Shengfu Wang, Mingying Gao (), Kaiyi Du, Xinyuan Chen, Yang Lu, Qianqian Hu, Anyu Du, Shenghu Du, Jian Wang, Keqing Shi, Zimiao Chen, Zhuo Li (), Zhenglin Li () and Jian Xiao ()
Additional contact information
Fan Zhang: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Haijuan Zhang: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Shengfu Wang: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Mingying Gao: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Kaiyi Du: Wenzhou Medical University
Xinyuan Chen: Wenzhou Medical University
Yang Lu: Wenzhou Medical University
Qianqian Hu: Wenzhou Medical University
Anyu Du: Wenzhou Medical University
Shenghu Du: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Jian Wang: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Keqing Shi: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Zimiao Chen: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Zhuo Li: Heilongjiang University
Zhenglin Li: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University
Jian Xiao: The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Abstract Achieving rapid and scar-free wound repair is a key goal in the field of regenerative medicine. Herein, a dynamically Schiff base-crosslinked hydrogel (F/R gel) with phase-adaptive regulating functions is constructed to integratedly promote rapid re-epithelization with suppressed scars on chronic infected wounds. Specifically, the gel effectively eliminates multidrug-resistant bacterial biofilm at infection stage via antimicrobial activity of ε-polylysine firstly dissociated from hydrogel matrix in infectious microenvironment, and interrupts the severe oxidative stress-inflammation cycle at wound site by the released ceria nanozyme, thus stimulating a pro-regenerative environment to ensure tissue repair. Subsequently, fibroblast growth factor/c-Jun siRNA co-loaded microcapsules gradually disintegrate to release drugs, facilitating neoangiogenesis and cell proliferation but simultaneously blocking c-Jun overexpression for fibrotic scar suppression. Notably, the F/R gel facilitates normal-like skin regeneration with no perceptible scars formed on infected male mouse wound and female rabbit ear wound models. Our work offers a promising regenerative strategy emphasizing immunomodulatory and fibroblast subtype modulation for scarless wound repair.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58987-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58987-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58987-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().