Regenerative effect of epiregulin-loaded hydrogel

Rapid and efficient wound healing response is essential to maintain whole organism integrity and homeostasis. Such process could be influenced by a plethora of factors that when interfering with the different healing phases finally result in impaired tissue repair. Furthermore, defective healing process is often associated with chronic and difficult to heal wounds, both conditions deeply affecting patients’ quality of life. Advanced wound management solutions are the new standard in difficult to heal treatment and their key feature is represented by their ability to protect the wound bed but also to direct cellular behavior. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the effectiveness of a bioactive hydrogel in modulating wound healing in a rat excisional wound model. Surgical wounds were treated with hydrogel matrix enriched with a keratinocyte specific growth factor (epiregulin), saline (control condition) or the different hydrogel components alone. Results showed from both a macroscopic and microscopic point of view a faster wound closure in hydrogel treated wounds associated with a better quality of the regenerated tissue. Such results thus support the use of the proposed hydrogel matrix as a springboard to develop innovative advanced wound dressings to treat difficult to heal wounds.