Sawadkar, Prasad;
Lali, Ferdinand;
Garcia-Gareta, Elena;
Garrido, Beatriz Gil;
Chaudhry, Abdullah;
Matharu, Priya;
Kyriakidis, Christos;
(2025)
Innovative hydrogels in cutaneous wound healing: current status and future perspectives.
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
, 13
, Article 1454903. 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1454903.
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Abstract
Chronic wounds pose a substantial burden on healthcare systems, necessitating innovative tissue engineering strategies to enhance clinical outcomes. Hydrogels, both of natural and synthetic origin, have emerged as versatile biomaterials for wound management due to their structural adaptability, biocompatibility, and tunable physicochemical properties. Their hydrophilic nature enables efficient nutrient transport, waste removal, and cellular integration, while their malleability facilitates application to deep and irregular wounds, providing an optimal microenvironment for cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Extracellular matrix (ECM)- based hydrogels retain bioactive molecules that support cellular infiltration, immune modulation, and tissue remodelling, making them highly effective scaffolds for growth factor delivery and regenerative therapies. Additionally, their injectability and potential for in situ polymerization enable minimally invasive applications, allowing on-demand gelation at target sites. By modifying their mechanical properties through crosslinking, hydrogels can achieve enhanced structural stability, prolonged degradation control, and improved surgical handling, optimizing their functionality in dynamic wound environments. This review outlines current approaches to skin tissue engineering, examining the biomaterials employed in hydrogel design, their limitations, and their interactions with host tissues. Furthermore, it highlights the emerging potential of functionalized injectable hydrogels, particularly those engineered for controlled drug release, enhanced bioactivity, and patient-specific therapeutic applications. These hydrogels offer a transformative platform for advanced wound care and regenerative medicine.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Innovative hydrogels in cutaneous wound healing: current status and future perspectives |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1454903 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2025.1454903 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 Sawadkar, Lali, Garcia-Gareta, Garrido, Chaudhry, Matharu, Kyriakidis and Greco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | injectable hydrogels, wound healing, polymers, extracellular matrix, biomaterials, chronic wounds |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Surgical Biotechnology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Targeted Intervention |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209024 |
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