Research Projects

Background: Diabetes is emerging as a significant health and societal concern globally, affecting both the young and the aged populations. In diabetic foot ulcer patients, due to abnormal glucose metabolism and chronic inflammation, the wound-healing process is delayed and they are prone to catching infections, which can lead to serious complications such as amputation of the leg or toe. Research gap: Two critical challenges that have been addressed in the proposal. 1. Wound Care Patch: Developing an innovative wound care patch that addresses the complications in sequential stages of diabetic wound healing. A wound care patch that effectively manages the challenges associated with the successive stages of diabetic wound healing, such as hemostasis, infection, inflammation, and the proliferative/remodeling phases, is in high demand. 2. Biomimicking 3D Wound Model: Creating a biomimicking 3D wound model to understand the intricate mechanisms involved in diabetic wound healing. The objective is to fabricate a multilayered self-healing hydrogel for diabetic wound care and study wound healing mechanisms in a 3D skin culture model and in vivo diabetic rat model Methods and outcome: Our central hypothesis is that our innovative wound dressing material made by layer-by-layer 3D printing of self-healing hydrogels would promote phase-wise wound healing by sequential and sustained release of clinically approved therapeutic molecules, which could significantly improve diabetic wound management. Each layer is therefore designed to release therapeutic molecules as a function of time as the wound heals in a diabetic ulcer. The woundcare patch is fabricated using FDA-approved composite polymers, Konjac glucomannan, beta-cyclodextrin and hyaluronic acid. The novelty part of this patch is that the hydrogel has a self-healing property, which chemically heals upon mechanical damage. Further, using 3D printing, a multilayered, hydrogel patch incorporating antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant and cellular regenerating molecules tuned to release at different phases of wound healing. An in vitro 3D culture model has been proposed to test our hypothesis. To study the wound healing mechanism, the 3D culture of primary human skin keratinocytes, Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), fibroblasts, and vascular endothelial cells would mimic the in vivo skin microenvironment. Further, the study extends to the diabetic rat model to assess the effectiveness of the wound care patch. Thus, the study addresses the challenging problems of poor wound healing in diabetic patients.