Researchers in the UK have developed a wound dressing that accelerates healing by using the body’s own repair proteins, improving wound healing in mice and enhancing tissue repair in lab-grown human skin.   

Chronic wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers, burns and traumatic injuries, affect millions of people and place a major burden on healthcare systems.  

Instead of using existing repair-inducing products with a shorter time of action, a new technology, developed at Imperial College London, captures the body’s own healing proteins from the wound or blood. A physical trigger caused by the wound itself activates the proteins exactly where and when they are required to repair it.   

The researchers showed that this mechanism works by promoting the formation of new blood vessels after injury in rats. It also led to faster closure of skin wounds in mice after ten days, and improved the growth of tissue in lab-grown human skin. 

Magdalene Ho, first author of the study published in Nature Materials,  said: “What excites me most is that this works in living human skin. We can see repair cells migrating into the wound dressing and confirm the material is engaging with human biology. That result makes me optimistic that this approach has a future in the clinic.”