Diabetic wounds are a serious complication for people with diabetes. These wounds are marked by persistent inflammation that produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) and raises oxidative stress, disturbing key healing stages such as angiogenesis (when new blood vessels form from existing ones) and tissue regeneration. Effectively treating these wounds requires coordinated control over both the jumbled inflammatory microenvironment and the stages of tissue repair. Now writing in Nature Communications, Liang Luo, Sidan Tian, Fanling Meng and colleagues report a polymer-based diabetic wound dressing that addresses both inflammation and tissue regeneration through a streamlined mechanism.

PDDA’s molecular structure enables it to influence the microenvironment in both ways. Its polymer backbone, formed of alternating double and triple bonds, is susceptible to oxidative degradation. Over the course of healing, the polymer gradually breaks down as it reacts with the ROS that have accumulated in the wound bed. This degradation not only consumes and eliminates the ROS, it also releases succinic acid — a proliferative molecule that stimulates tissue regeneration — as a primary degradation product. Thus, the reduction of oxidative stress and inflammation is intrinsically tied to the production of healing-promoting molecules. As revealed in experiments on human endothelial cells that are important for vascularization, these degradation molecules aid angiogenesis: they enhanced the cells’ mobility and formation into long tubes, key steps in new blood vessel development, and upregulated the expression of certain genes responsible for vascular health.