A dynamically phase-adaptive regulating hydrogel promotes ultrafast anti-fibrotic wound healing
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.
Authors
- Zimiao Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6772-7277)
- Zhuo Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8164-1501)
- Zhenglin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6583-9013)
- Mingying Gao
- Qianqian Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5593-8168)
- Keqing Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5070-3834)
- Jian Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9589-4056)
- Fan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0786-9687)
- Xinyuan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2990-2801)
- Jian Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7374-6506)
- Kui Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6698-3538)
- Shengfu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7175-4908)
- Lu Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0632-6246)
- Haijuan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5842-8251)
- Anyu Du
- Shenghu Du
Institutions
- Wenzhou University (CN)
- Wenzhou Medical University (CN)
- First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (CN)
- Zhejiang Lab (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Heilongjiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-04-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58987-w
- Citations
- 80
- Primary Topic
- Wound Healing and Treatments
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 82.08
Funders
- Wenzhou Medical University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province