Fluorinated Methacrylamide Chitosan Hydrogel Dressings Improve Regenerated Wound Tissue Quality in Diabetic Wound Healing

Objective: Oxygen therapy has shown promising results for treating diabetic wounds. However, clinically used oxygen therapies are cumbersome and expensive. Thus, there is a need to develop a localized oxygenating treatment that is easy to use and inexpensive. Approach: In this study, we tested a previously developed hydrogel sheet wound dressing based on fluorinated methacrylamide chitosan (MACF) for enhanced oxygenation and compared it with a commercial sheet hydrogel dressing, AquaDerm (TM), and no treatment controls in a splinted transgenic diabetic mouse wound model. Results: AquaDerm exhibited poor wound closure response compared with the MACF oxygenating hydrogel sheet dressing (MACF+O-2) and no treatment. Histological analysis revealed enhanced collagen synthesis and neovascularization upon MACF+O-2 treatment as indicated by higher collagen content and number of blood vessels/capillaries compared with AquaDerm and no treatment. MACF+O-2 also improved wound collagen fiber alignment, thus demonstrating improved skin tissue maturation. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-based biodistribution analysis revealed that the degradation products of the MACF-based dressing did not accumulate in lung, liver, and kidney tissues of the treated animals after 14 days of treatment. Innovation: This study presents the first application of a unique oxygenating biomaterial (MACF) made into a moist hydrogel wound dressing for treating diabetic wounds. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the benefits of this novel biomaterial approach for improving regenerated tissue structure in diabetic wound healing.