Accelerating Early-Stage Skin Wound Healing with Atomically Hydrogenated Silicene Nanosheets

Abstract

Delayed healing of skin wounds influences patient life quality and adds a heavy burden to healthcare services, and hence, it requires early-stage acceleration. Improper oxidative stress acts as a primary factor that hinders tissue repair and regeneration. Neutrophils that gather within the wound can produce excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) to start the subsequent inflammatory cascade effects. However, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) generated by the overreactive neutrophils prevent normal function of the fibroblasts in the skin wound tissue. Herein, a practical ROS scavenger, the atomically hydrogenated silicene (HSi) nanosheets, was employed to alleviate the oxidative stress and decrease inflammatory cytokines and redundant NETs in inflamed neutrophils via local hydrogen generation, thus enabling proliferation and migration of the fibroblasts. In a mouse model of a back skin wound, HSi nanosheets accelerated wound healing and tissue reconstruction through rebuilding the normal skin surface and collagen deposition through a biosafe approach. Taken together, the fabricated HSi nanosheets in this study represent a highly promising alternative for skin wound treatment in an early stage.