Microparticles decorated with cell-instructive surface chemistries actively promote wound healing

Abstract

Wound healing is a complex biological process involving close crosstalk between various cell types. Dysregulation in any of these processes, such as in diabetic wounds, results in chronic non-healing wounds. Fibroblasts are a critical cell type involved in wound healing. We screened 315 different polymer surfaces to identify candidates which actively drove fibroblasts towards either pro- or anti-proliferative functional phenotypes. Fibroblast-instructive chemistries were identified, which we synthesized into surfactants to fabricate easy to administer microparticles for direct application to diabetic wounds. The pro-proliferative microfluidic derived particles were able to successfully promote neovascularisation, granulation tissue formation and wound closure after a single application to the wound bed. The data within this collection is associated with in vitro and in vivo assays carried out within the manuscript.