Antibacterial and angiogenic chitosan microneedle array patch for promoting wound healing

TLDR

A wound‑healing patch that prevents infection and promotes tissue remodeling is highly valuable, and chitosan’s natural antibacterial properties make it a popular choice for such applications. The study develops a biomass chitosan microneedle array patch with smart responsive drug delivery to promote wound healing. The microneedle array delivers drugs efficiently, avoids excessive adhesion, and releases VEGF from temperature‑sensitive hydrogel pores in response to inflammation‑induced temperature rises. The CSMNA patch reduces inflammation, enhances collagen deposition, stimulates angiogenesis, and promotes tissue regeneration, indicating its potential clinical value.

Abstract

A patch with the capability of avoiding wound infection and promoting tissue remolding is of great value for wound healing. In this paper, we develop a biomass chitosan microneedle array (CSMNA) patch integrated with smart responsive drug delivery for promoting wound healing. Chitosan possesses many outstanding features such as the natural antibacterial property and has been widely utilized for wound healing. Besides, the microstructure of microneedles enables the effective delivery of loaded drugs into the target area and avoids the excessive adhesion between the skin and the patch. Also, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is encapsulated in the micropores of CSMNA by temperature sensitive hydrogel. Therefore, the smart release of the drugs can be controllably realized via the temperature rising induced by the inflammation response at the site of wounds. It is demonstrated that the biomass CSMNA patch can promote inflammatory inhibition, collagen deposition, angiogenesis, and tissue regeneration during the wound closure. Thus, this versatile CSMNA patch is potentially valuable for wound healing in clinical applications.