New advances in responsive smart hydrogel dressings: A perspective for clinical improvement of diabetic wounds

Shams, Soroush; Nasiri, Nahid; Nazemizadeh, Armin; Haghdoost, Fatemeh; Hashemi, Seyed Saeid; Tabaie, Seyed Mehdi; Habibi, Masoud; Alameh, Seyed Hesamoddin

doi:10.61882/aswtr.22.1.10

Volume 22, Issue 1 (7-2025) ASWTR 2025, 22(1): 10-29 | Back to browse issues page

‎ 10.61882/aswtr.22.1.10

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Shams S, Nasiri N, Nazemizadeh A, Haghdoost F, Hashemi S S, Tabaie S M, et al . New advances in responsive smart hydrogel dressings: A perspective for clinical improvement of diabetic wounds. ASWTR 2025; 22 (1) :10-29
URL: http://icml.ir/article-1-678-en.html

New advances in responsive smart hydrogel dressings: A perspective for clinical improvement of diabetic wounds

Soroush Shams

, Nahid Nasiri

, Armin Nazemizadeh

, Fatemeh Haghdoost ^*

, Seyed Saeid Hashemi

, Seyed Mehdi Tabaie

, Masoud Habibi

, Seyed Hesamoddin Alameh

1Departmnt of Regenerative Medicine and Biotechnology in Wound Healing, Medical Laser Research Center, Yara Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: (331 Views)

The treatment of chronic and non-healing wounds in diabetic patients remains a major medical problem. Recent reports have shown that hydrogel wound dressings can be an effective strategy for the treatment of diabetic wounds due to their excellent hydrophilicity, good drug loading ability, and sustained drug release properties. However, the drug release and degradation behavior of hydrogel wound dressings used in the clinic cannot be tuned according to the wound microenvironment. Due to the complexity of diabetic wounds, antibiotics and other drugs are often combined with hydrogel dressings in clinical use. Researchers have developed responsive hydrogel dressings based on the characteristics of the diabetic wound microenvironment, such as high glucose and low pH, or in combination with external stimuli (such as light or magnetic field), to achieve controlled drug release, gel degradation, and microenvironment improvement, and overcome clinical problems. It is predicted that in the future, reactive hydrogel dressings will play an important role in diabetic wound healing dressings. In this review, recent advances in reactive hydrogel dressings for diabetic wound healing are reviewed, focusing on the hydrogel structure design, reactivity principle, and degradation behavior. Finally, the advantages and limitations of these reactive hydrogels in clinical applications are also discussed. It is hoped that this review will contribute to further progress in the field of hydrogels as improved dressings for diabetic wound healing and clinical application.

Keywords: Smart hydrogel, controlled drug delivery, nanotechnology in drug delivery, bioactive systems, stimuli-responsive polymers

Full-Text [PDF 711 kb] (83 Downloads)

Educational: Review | Subject: General
Received: 2025/04/12 | Accepted: 2025/05/20 | Published: 2025/06/22

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