Acupoint Therapy with Injectable, Pro-Healing Stem Cell-Loaded Hydrogel Microspheres Promotes Skin Wound Healing

Wound repair is a complex and dynamic process, involving stages of hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Standard methods currently used for clinical treatment of skin defects remain unsatisfying and alternative treatments have emerged including acupuncture mostly relying on the conventional needle method. It is applied sustained acupuncture therapy with bioengineered stem cell-loaded hydrogel microspheres (A-SGC), where the data gathered through transcriptomics, metabolomics, and single-cell omics analyses are used to construct a comprehensive multi-omics map underlying the wound regeneration process with such a therapy. Under the treatment of A-SGC, the interactions and Yin-Yang balance among fibroblasts, macrophages, endothelial cells, and keratinocytes facilitated skin regeneration instead of scarred healing. The genes related to the promotion of matrix synthesis and re-epithelialization played important roles in the transition from the inflammatory granulation phase to the stromal remodeling phase. This convergence use of hydrogel microspheres, stem cells, and sustained acupuncture therapy could have previously unattainable therapeutic implications for improved wound treatment.