Project goals
Chronic wounds are wounds that cannot heal naturally or heal very slowly and require combined therapies to intervene and support treatment such as treating necrotic tissue, using antibiotics and super absorbent bandages, treatment to restore vascularity at the wound to increase blood supply to support the regeneration of new tissue, etc. so the treatment problem is often long and very complicated. In recent years, multifunctional injectable hydrogels have been widely researched for the above treatment support purposes. This type of material undergoes a rapid phase transition from solution to gel when exposed to body temperature, in which regenerative cell conductors or treatment-supporting active ingredients help bind and speed up the wound healing process. Injectable hydrogels are also considered a minimally invasive treatment method and have been approved by the FDA for use on many conditions. The project aims to develop injectable hydrogel material systems based on heat-sensitive polysaccharide derivatives encapsulated with nitric oxide-releasing active ingredients (which play an angiogenic and antibacterial role), generate collagen from regenerated cells, natural anti-inflammatory active ingredients or stem cells to create multifunctional materials that are highly effective in treating all types of chronic ulcers at a low cost compared to other current commercial specialty products. The results achieved from the project will be a premise to create advanced wound care products for people at reasonable prices as well as contribute to reducing pressure on the national health system.
Main content of the project
Synthesis of thermosensitive hydrogels based on the conjugation of polysaccharides (fucoidan, hyaluronic acid (HA), alginate). The synthesized hydrogels should meet the ideal requirements for advanced wound dressing materials, including: (i) can be used by injection for ease of manipulation and less invasiveness to the skin and surrounding tissues, (ii) the product is in solution form at low temperatures (<15oC) and gelation quickly when exposed to body temperature (37 oC), to fill irregular or deep wounds without wrinkling, (iii) has cytocompatibility towards mammalian cells; (iv) biodegradability to eliminate the need for secondary removal processes
Project impact
The results achieved from the project will be a premise to create advanced wound care products for people at reasonable prices as well as contribute to reducing pressure on the national health system.
- Study on improving the functionality of injectable hydrogels by incorporating various biotherapeutic agents (such as curcumin, reversatrol, essential amino acids, scavengers/ROS generators, stem cells) into the hydrogel, thus speeds up the wound healing process.
- Evaluation of the in vivo efficacy of multifunctional hydrogels that accelerate wound closure and improve the quality of healed skin tissue, under accompanying pathological conditions or continuous stimulation of chronic wound models (such as diabetes, increased and prolonged inflammatory response due to the production of oxidative species, bacterial infections, etc.)
