Injectable proangiogenic hydrogel promotes burn wound healing

Severe burn injury is a common and devastating trauma in modern society. Although current therapies have significantly lowered the mortality rate caused by burns, ischemia and sustained inflammation often hinder the healing process. Patients can experience lifelong scarring, pain, and functional impairments. Many bioactive agent-enriched hydrogel dressings have been developed to create an optimal regenerative microenvironment for burn management. However, multivariate material design, high costs, and operational challenges limit their clinical use. Here, we developed an injectable hydrogel dressing composed of a hyperbranched polymer of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate, a thiolated hyaluronic acid, and a cysteine-containing prominin-1-binding peptide (cPR1P). Rapid cross-linking through Michael-type addition enables in situ gelation and easy wound sealing. Covalently bonded cPR1P promotes the local enrichment of endogenous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and provides a proangiogenic effect. Using a murine burn wound model, the hydrogel dressing showed significantly improved neovascularization, faster wound closure, and reduced inflammation. Transcriptome analysis and molecular biological assessments suggest that the proangiogenic and anti-inflammatory effects are related to the VEGF-Akt and CaMKK-AMPK signaling pathways. Our results demonstrate the promising potential of this injectable cPR1P-bonded hydrogel dressing for wound healing