Stimuli-responsive hydrogels: An intelligent tool for wound management

Abstract

Wound healing represents a well-coordinated and sophisticated biological process characterized by the need for precise regulation and spatiotemporal synergy of multiple cells, regulatory cytokines, and signaling pathways, ultimately achieving repair and functional reconstruction of damaged tissues. In complex situations such as war, disasters and diseases, how to carry out wound management in a truly effective manner still stands as a notable challenge. The microenvironment of wound is multi-dimensional, dynamic and complex, the wound healing process is collectively regulated by endogenous biochemical signals and exogenous physical, chemical, biological factors, which makes traditional dressings often fall short of expectations in the wound healing. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels, by sensing endogenous factors (like pH, reactive oxygen species, and glucose, along with specific enzymes) or exogenous factors (light, temperature, electric fields, etc.), exhibit various intelligent characteristics, such as interacting with wounds, monitoring wound conditions or microenvironment changes, achieving precise drug release control or dynamic assessment of the wound healing process, thereby effectively promoting wound healing. Stimuli-responsive hydrogel tissue engineering strategies (scaffolds, nanofibers, microneedles, microspheres, etc.) also provide more options for wound repair. Serving as a critical overview of stimuli-responsive hydrogels, this review delves into the recent application scenarios of these hydrogels in wound management, systematically summarizes the attendant challenges, and seeks to offer a useful reference for studies in this research field.