The research paper titled “Bio-multifunctional alginate/chitosan/fucoidan sponges with enhanced angiogenesis and hair follicle regeneration for promoting full-thickness wound healing” by Yuanping Hao was recently published in the mainstream journal 《Materials and Design》(IF: 5.77, the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranking Q1). The Center for Stomatology and The Institute of Translational Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University are the first units of this study, and the co-corresponding authors are Prof. Peifeng Li and Qihui Zhou. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, Shandong Provincial Key Research and Development Program, Shandong Provincial Youth Innovation Science and Technology Program Team, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and other projects
1. The research background
Skin, the first line of defense of the body's immune, plays an important role in maintaining homeostasis and protecting the host from a variety of toxic substances and microbial attacks. Problems caused by large total cortical defects, such as bleeding, infection, inflammation, scar, and regeneration difficulties of blood vessels and hair follicles, lead to the failure to heal themselves for a long time, posing a serious threat to people's health and the quality of life. Over the past two decades, researchers have attempted to develop wound dressings with different chemical compositions and structures. However, developing wound dressings that meet the needs of accelerating wound closure, reducing scar formation, stimulating angiogenesis, and promoting hair follicle regeneration remains a major challenge.
Marine biological polysaccharide sodium alginate/chitosan (AC) combined the characteristics of the respective polymer composite material promotes the wound healing through the induction of thrombosis, the promotion of the secretion of extracellular matrix (ECM), and the formation of granulation tissue. However, the AC composite sponge still has some limitations, such as difficulties in reducing scar formation and promoting blood vessel and hair follicle regeneration. Fucoidan (FD), extracted from brown algae, has excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity. Fucoidan has been found to adsorb, stabilize, and activate multiple heparin-binding cytokines in exudates, such as FGF-1 and FGF-2, inducing new angiogenesis. Fucoidan can also regulate the secretion of higher levels of TGF-β1, which plays an important role in stimulating cell division and differentiation, reducing scar generation, and promoting the formation of typical granulation tissue. In addition to the chemical properties of materials, the physical structure is of great importance. In particular, sponge material is a highly porous material with good air permeability, good seepage absorption ability protection, and hemostatic performance. In addition, it also has the characteristics of strong plasticity and portability and is widely used in the field of wound repair. Therefore, the design and preparation of sodium alginate/chitosan/alginate polysaccharide (ACF) composite sponge material is likely to have very good effects on wound repair.
2. Main Achievements
Recently, our research group has developed a new type of wound repair sponge material (ACF) containing seaweed polysaccharide, sodium alginate, and chitosan. The composite sponge wound dressing was prepared by using complexation between charged macromolecules and lyophilization, crosslinking, and drying techniques. The sponge material has good porosity, water vapor permeability, and compressive and flexural properties. Compared with AC sponge, ACF sponge containing 10% and 20% fucozoite polysaccharide have a better hemostatic effect. The antibacterial assay shows that the sponge can kill gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, and it can also effectively inhibit bacterial infection in skin wounds. In addition, an ACF sponge was applied to a rat model of total cortical injury. The results showed that an ACF sponge containing 10% fucozoite polysaccharide (ACF-1) could significantly promote skin regeneration compared with other experimental groups. Histomorphological observation and immunohistochemical analysis showed that the ACF-1 sponge significantly promoted collagen formation in epithelium and dermis. It promoted neovascularization by up-regulating CD31 expression, inhibited inflammation by down-regulating TNF-ɑ expression, and ultimately facilitated the formation of regenerative hair follicles.
3. Research Significance and Value
This study makes full use of Marine biomass polysaccharides with rich sources and good biocompatibility and prepares a compound sponge wound dressing with functions of hemostasis, antibiosis, and the regeneration of blood vessels and hair follicles by simple physical cross-bonding section. We expect to provide a new method and technical means for rapid and trace-free wound repair in clinical practice.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
More details in the research group's WeChat push: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2zK9t06WsQ4yWD5zR2q5oQ
Article Title: Bio-multifunctional alginate/chitosan/fucoidan sponges with enhanced angiogenesis and hair follicle regeneration for promoting full-thickness wound healing.
Author: Yuanping Hao
Paper link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026412752030397X