Niculescu Adelina-Gabriela, Bîrcă Alexandra Cătălina, Mogoşanu George Dan, Rădulescu Marius, Holban Alina Maria, Manuc Daniela, Alberts Adina, Grumezescu Alexandru Mihai, Mogoantă Laurenţiu
Department of Science and Engineering of Oxide Materials and Nanomaterials, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, 011061 Bucharest, Romania.
Research Institute of the University of Bucharest-ICUB, University of Bucharest, 050657 Bucharest, Romania.
Gels. 2025 Jun 1;11(6):427. doi: 10.3390/gels11060427.
The delayed healing and infection risks associated with chronic wounds and burns pose significant clinical challenges. Traditional dressings provide basic coverage but lack the bioactive properties needed for tissue regeneration and antimicrobial protection. In this study, we developed zinc alginate hydrogel-coated traditional wound dressings (WD@AlgZn) and evaluated their physicochemical properties, antimicrobial performance, and in vivo healing efficacy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a uniform coating of the zinc alginate network on dressing fibers, while Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the successful incorporation of zinc ions. Antimicrobial assays further demonstrated that WD@AlgZn reduced bacterial loads (CFU/mL counts) by several orders of magnitude for both and compared to uncoated controls. An in vivo rat burn wound model exhibited accelerated wound closure when using WD@AlgZn dressings compared to conventional wound care approaches, achieving a 90.75% healing rate by day 21, significantly outperforming the silver sulfadiazine (52.32%), uncoated-dressing (46.58%), and spontaneous-healing (37.25%) groups. Histological analysis confirmed enhanced re-epithelialization, neovascularization, and reduced inflammation in WD@AlgZn-treated tissues. The findings suggest that WD@AlgZn offers a promising alternative for advanced wound management, combining structural robustness with bioactive properties to support efficient wound healing and infection control. These results provide valuable insights into the potential clinical applications of metal-ion cross-linked biopolymeric hydrogel dressings for next-generation wound care strategies.
慢性伤口和烧伤所带来的愈合延迟和感染风险构成了重大的临床挑战。传统敷料提供基本的覆盖，但缺乏组织再生和抗菌保护所需的生物活性特性。在本研究中，我们开发了藻酸锌水凝胶涂层的传统伤口敷料（WD@AlgZn），并评估了它们的物理化学性质、抗菌性能和体内愈合效果。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）显示藻酸锌网络均匀地覆盖在敷料纤维上，而傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR）证实了锌离子的成功掺入。抗菌试验进一步表明，与未涂层的对照相比，WD@AlgZn对金黄色葡萄球菌和大肠杆菌的细菌载量（CFU/mL计数）均降低了几个数量级。在体内大鼠烧伤伤口模型中，与传统伤口护理方法相比，使用WD@AlgZn敷料时伤口愈合加速，到第21天时愈合率达到90.75%，显著优于磺胺嘧啶银（52.32%）、未涂层敷料（46.58%）和自然愈合（37.25%）组。组织学分析证实，WD@AlgZn处理的组织中上皮再形成、新血管形成增强，炎症减轻。研究结果表明，WD@AlgZn结合了结构坚固性和生物活性特性，为高效伤口愈合和感染控制提供支持，为先进伤口管理提供了一种有前景的替代方案。这些结果为金属离子交联生物聚合物水凝胶敷料在下一代伤口护理策略中的潜在临床应用提供了有价值的见解。
