At some point in their lives, 15 percent of people with diabetes will develop a hard-to-treat foot ulcer, and 24 percent of those affected will require a lower-leg amputation because of it. In some instances, such ulcers might even lead to death. To prevent such complications, a team of engineers and surgeons from Northwestern University has developed a new treatment for diabetes-related foot ulcers. Called a regenerative bandage, the material heals diabetes-related wounds four times faster than a standard bandage and without side effects. The research was published online in the Journal of Controlled Release.
“Foot ulcers cause many serious problems for diabetic patients,” said Guillermo Ameer, DSc, professor of biomedical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and professor of surgery in the Feinberg School of Medicine. “Some sores don’t heal fast enough and are prone to infection. We thought that we could use some of our work in biomaterials for medical applications and controlled drug release to help heal those wounds.”
Ameer’s laboratory previously created a thermo-responsive material-with intrinsic antioxidant properties to counter inflammation-that is able to deliver therapeutic cells and proteins. His team used this material to slowly release a protein into the wound that hastens the body’s ability to repair itself by recruiting stem cells to the wound and creating new blood vessels to increase blood circulation. The thermo-responsive material is applied to the wound bed as a liquid and solidifies into a gel when exposed to body temperature. Ameer believes that the inherent antioxidant properties within the material also reduce oxidative stress to help the wound heal.
“Our material conforms to the shape and dimensions of the wound and can be rinsed off with cooled saline, if needed. This material characteristic can protect the regenerating tissue during dressing changes,” Ameer said. “The repair process is impaired in people with diabetes. By mimicking the repair process that happens in a healthy body, we have demonstrated a promising new way to treat diabetic wounds.”
Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by Northwestern University, McCormick School of Engineering.
