Theranostics 2023; 13(9):2811-2824. doi:10.7150/thno.84665 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. The Research and Application Center of Precision Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450014, China.
2. Institute of Biomedical Health Technology and Engineering, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China.
3. Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
4. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
5. Cancer Center and Department of Oncology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China.
Background: Safe and effective wound healing can be a major clinical challenge. Inflammation and vascular impairment are two main causes of inadequate wound healing.
Methods: Here, we developed a versatile hydrogel wound dressing, comprising a straightforward physical mixture of royal jelly-derived extracellular vesicles (RJ-EVs) and methacrylic anhydride modified sericin (SerMA), to accelerate wound healing by inhibiting inflammation and promoting vascular reparation.
Results: The RJ-EVs showed satisfactory anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, and significantly promoted L929 cell proliferation and migration in vitro. Meanwhile, the photocrosslinked SerMA hydrogel with its porous interior structure and high fluidity made it a good candidate for wound dressing. The RJ-EVs can be gradually released from the SerMA hydrogel at the wound site, ensuring the restorative effect of RJ-EVs. In a full-thickness skin defect model, the SerMA/RJ-EVs hydrogel dressing accelerated wound healing with a healing rate of 96.8% by improving cell proliferation and angiogenesis. The RNA sequencing results further revealed that the SerMA/RJ-EVs hydrogel dressing was involved in inflammatory damage repair-related pathways including recombinational repair, epidermis development, and Wnt signaling.
Conclusion: This SerMA/RJ-EVs hydrogel dressing offers a simple, safe and robust strategy for modulating inflammation and vascular impairment for accelerated wound healing.
Keywords: Hydrogel, Royal Jelly, Extracellular Vesicles, Wound Healing, Biomaterials