Purpose: Burns have important functional and psychosocial implications for patients. Decades of wound healing research have demonstrated a critical window within the first 24 hours after wounding during which there is a “switch” from scarless wound healing to scarring. Recently, cell-based therapies have been proposed as an option for improving healing and reducing scar formation in burn wounds. Yet challenges remain for scale up and broad bioavailability of the therapy. Oxygen chambers have long been used in supportive wound care and oxygenation therapy presents an improved way reduce scarring and accelerate wound closure.
Methods: We have developed a novel hydrogel that recapitulates results seen in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, without the need for a chamber in Swaza-2. This hydrogel, combined with Swaza-1, a perfluorocarbon-based oxygen nanoparticle, was tested on a murine contact burn model in C57Bl/6 mice to measure the regenerative capabilities of Swaza-1-infused hydrogel and its effects on scarless wound healing.
Results: Wounds treated with Swaza-2 demonstrated accelerated healing and time to re-epithelialization, brought about by increased VEGF and SDF1 expression and significantly higher neovascularization and collagen deposition (p<0.05). We also observed an increase in the expression of pro-angiogenic genes MCP-1, VEGF, and SDF-1 at both the protein and mRNA level (p<0.05). Expression of pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory genes was downregulated. On average, Swaza-2 wounds closed 4 days earlier when compared to controls. Furthermore, Swaza-2 treated burns exhibited reduced scar area when compared to the untreated control.
Conclusion: We have developed an oxygen-hydrogel therapy for treating burns, with demonstrated pro-angiogenic, fibromodulatory and immunomodulatory effects. We plan to further evaluate the efficacy of Swaza-2 in a large animal model.