Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have created an easy-to-make, low-cost injectable hydrogel that could help wounds heal faster, especially for patients with compromised health issues.
Wound healing can be complex and challenging, especially when a patient has other health obstacles that seriously impede the process. Often injectable hydrogels are applied to irregular shaped wounds, like diabetic ulcers, to help form a temporary matrix, or structure, to keep the wound stable while cells rejuvenate. The caveat is that current hydrogels are not porous enough and do not allow neighboring cells to pass through toward the wound to help it mend.
"While valuable for helping patients, current hydrogels have limited clinical efficacy," said Kyung Jae Jeong, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UNH. "We discovered a simple solution to make the hydrogels more porous and therefore help to speed up the healing."
In the study, recently published in the journal of ACS Applied Bio Materials, the researchers outline how they made a macroporous hydrogel by combining readily available gelatin microgels - hydrogels that are a few hundred microns in diameter - with an inexpensive enzyme called microbial transglutaminase (mTG). Gelatin was used because it is a natural protein derived from collagen, a protein found in connective tissue in the body such as skin. Assembling these tiny microgels with mTG helped create a hydrogel with large enough pores for the neighboring cells to move into the wound for repair. In addition, this new injectable formulation allows for the slow release of protein drugs to aid wound healing, such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). The researchers compared conventional nonporous hydrogels with the new macroporous hydrogels, and found a notable increase in the migration of tissue cells inside the hydrogel, which is the hallmark of wound healing.
Along with diabetic ulcers, the macroporous hydrogel could help with other forms of healing on the skin, cornea, internal organs during surgery and even has military implications.
This work was supported in part by the NIH COBRE Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research through an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Source: University of New Hampshire
How Contaminated Is Your Stretcher? The Hidden Risks on Hospital Wheels
July 3rd 2025Despite routine disinfection, hospital surfaces, such as stretchers, remain reservoirs for harmful microbes, according to several recent studies. From high-touch areas to damaged mattresses and the effectiveness of antimicrobial coatings, researchers continue to uncover persistent risks in environmental hygiene, highlighting the critical need for innovative, continuous disinfection strategies in health care settings.
Beyond the Surface: Rethinking Environmental Hygiene Validation at Exchange25
June 30th 2025Environmental hygiene is about more than just shiny surfaces. At Exchange25, infection prevention experts urged the field to look deeper, rethink blame, and validate cleaning efforts across the entire care environment, not just EVS tasks.
A Controversial Reboot: New Vaccine Panel Faces Scrutiny, Support, and Sharp Divides
June 26th 2025As the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under sweeping changes by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the national spotlight turned to the panel’s legitimacy, vaccine guidance, and whether science or ideology would steer public health policy in a polarized era.