Bioactive Supramolecular Polymers for Skin Regeneration Following Burn Injury.

Abstract

Severe deep dermal burns present a significant challenge for the clinician, often resulting in complications including infection, scarring, and potentially multisystem organ failure. The current standard of care, which involves debridement and skin coverage, has improved survival rates but remains insufficient for optimal tissue regeneration and functional recovery. Additionally, there can be limited donor skin availability with severe burns, leading to the use of skin substitutes to be applied with varying degrees of success reported. Biomaterial scaffolds, designed to reduce the reliance on skin grafting, could promote improved healing and patient outcomes. Recent research has focused on promoting the proliferative phase of wound healing through the use of extracellular matrix (ECM) mimetic scaffolds; however, these constructs continue to exhibit critical limitations, including mechanical fragility, heightened infection susceptibility, limited morphological conformity to host tissue architecture, and the necessity for secondary surgical intervention for scaffold retrieval. This study presents a bioactive supramolecular polymer capable of rapid self-assembly into nanofibers, which act as a scaffold to promote tissue regeneration following burn injury. The scaffold is biocompatible, biodegradable, and capable of presenting a bioactive peptide designed to reduce acute inflammation and promote keratinocyte migration in the scaffold. The supramolecular polymers significantly accelerated early wound healing in a clinically relevant deep dermal murine burn injury model. This work provides a promising approach to the development of biomaterials that combine both therapeutic strategies, with scaffolding to promote skin regeneration following severe burn injury.