Multifunctional Alginate Hydrogel Protects and Heals Skin Defects in Complex Clinical Situations

Wei Lu; Dongyan Bao; Fangxin Ta; Danping Liu; Dezhi Zhang; Zheng Zhang; Zhongkai Fan

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c01108

Multifunctional Alginate Hydrogel Protects and Heals Skin Defects in Complex Clinical Situations

ACS Omega. 2020 Jul 8;5(28):17152-17159. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c01108. eCollection 2020 Jul 21.

Authors

Wei Lu¹, Dongyan Bao², Fangxin Ta³, Danping Liu¹, Dezhi Zhang¹, Zheng Zhang¹, Zhongkai Fan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University, Liaoning 121001, PR China.
² Basic Medical College, Jinzhou Medical University, Liaoning 121001, PR China.
³ Health Management Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University, Liaoning 121001, PR China.

Abstract

Skin defects, soft tissue damage, and fractures often occur simultaneously in severe trauma. Under current medical technology, fractures can be quickly fixed by internal or external repair techniques, and early functional exercises can be performed. However, skin defects heal over a long time and can even be difficult to heal. Functional exercise may cause cutting of fresh granulation to break and impair wound healing. Functional exercise and wound healing seem to contradict each other. In this study, an alginate hydrogel was developed. With self-healing characteristics, the hydrogel tightly adhered to the wound and could self-heal breaks in the gel caused by functional exercises. These characteristics enable this hydrogel to be used in complex clinical situations to solve sports rehabilitation and skin defect repair problems. In addition, this hydrogel can slowly release strontium ions, promote angiogenesis and collagen deposition in the wound, and quickly heal the wound.