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Review
. 2018 Feb 16;8(14):7533-7549.
doi: 10.1039/c7ra13510f. eCollection 2018 Feb 14.

A functional chitosan-based hydrogel as a wound dressing and drug delivery system in the treatment of wound healing

He Liu  1 , Chenyu Wang  1   2 , Chen Li  1 , Yanguo Qin  1 , Zhonghan Wang  1 , Fan Yang  1 , Zuhao Li  1 , Jincheng Wang  1
Affiliations
Review

A functional chitosan-based hydrogel as a wound dressing and drug delivery system in the treatment of wound healing

He Liu et al. RSC Adv. .

Abstract

Functional active wound dressings are expected to provide a moist wound environment, offer protection from secondary infections, remove wound exudate and accelerate tissue regeneration, as well as to improve the efficiency of wound healing. Chitosan-based hydrogels are considered as ideal materials for enhancing wound healing owing to their biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, antimicrobial, biologically adhesive, biological activity and hemostatic effects. Chitosan-based hydrogels have been demonstrated to promote wound healing at different wound healing stages, and also can alleviate the factors against wound healing (such as excessive inflammatory and chronic wound infection). The unique biological properties of a chitosan-based hydrogel enable it to serve as both a wound dressing and as a drug delivery system (DDS) to deliver antibacterial agents, growth factors, stem cells and so on, which could further accelerate wound healing. For various kinds of wounds, chitosan-based hydrogels are able to promote the effectiveness of wound healing by modifying or combining with other polymers, and carrying different types of active substances. In this review, we will take a close look at the application of chitosan-based hydrogels in wound dressings and DDS to enhance wound healing.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Differences in the normal and diabetic wound healing phases (Reprint with permission from L. I. F. Moura et al.).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Application of chitosan-based hydrogel dressings. The unique biological properties of chitosan-based hydrogels enable it to serve both as a wound dressing and as a drug delivery system to deliver active substances, which could further promote wound healing.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. The mechanisms of chitosan-based hydrogels to promote wound healing. Chitosan provides a non-protein matrix for three dimensional tissue growth and activates macrophages for tumoricidal activity. It stimulates cell proliferation and histoarchitectural tissue organization. Chitosan is a hemostat, which helps in natural blood clotting and blocks nerve endings reducing pain (Reprint with permission from R. Jayakumar et al.).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Three main methods of drug loading. (A) The easiest drug loading method is to place the fully formed hydrogel into medium saturated with the therapeutic. (B) In the case of larger drugs and bioligands, the payload must be entrapped during the gelation process. (C) In order to limit the loss of the therapeutic reserve (and the risk of toxic exposure), drugs can be covalently or physically linked to the polymer chains prior to gelation (Reprint with permission from N. Bhattarai et al.).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. MSC-laden hydrogels can prohibit chronic inflammation and contribute to growth factor secretion, resulting in accelerated wound contraction, ECM secretion, angiogenesis, re-epithelialization, hair follicle and sebaceous gland regeneration and reduced scar formation (Reprint with permission from Chen et al.).
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