Polymer-Based Wound Dressing Materials Loaded with Bioactive Agents: Potential Materials for the Treatment of Diabetic Wounds

Abstract

Diabetic wounds are severe injuries that are common in patients that suffer from diabetes. Most of the presently employed wound dressing scaffolds are inappropriate for treating diabetic wounds. Improper treatment of diabetic wounds usually results in amputations. The shortcomings that are related to the currently used wound dressings include poor antimicrobial properties, inability to provide moisture, weak mechanical features, poor biodegradability, and biocompatibility, etc. To overcome the poor mechanical properties, polymer-based wound dressings have been designed from the combination of biopolymers (natural polymers) (e.g., chitosan, alginate, cellulose, chitin, gelatin, etc.) and synthetic polymers (e.g., poly (vinyl alcohol), poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), polylactide, poly-glycolic acid, polyurethanes, etc.) to produce effective hybrid scaffolds for wound management. The loading of bioactive agents or drugs into polymer-based wound dressings can result in improved therapeutic outcomes such as good antibacterial or antioxidant activity when used in the treatment of diabetic wounds. Based on the outstanding performance of polymer-based wound dressings on diabetic wounds in the pre-clinical experiments, the in vivo and in vitro therapeutic results of the wound dressing materials on the diabetic wound are hereby reviewed.