Living Artificial Skin: Photosensitizer and Cell Sandwiched Bacterial Cellulose for Chronic Wound Healing.

Abstract

Chronic wounds pose a significant global public health challenge due to their suboptimal treatment efficacy caused by bacterial infections and micro-circulatory disturbances. Inspired by the bio-functionality of natural skin, we bioengineered an artificial skin (HV@BC@TBG) with bacterial cellulose (BC) sandwiched between photosensitizers (PS) and functionalized living cells. Glucose-modified PS (TBG) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-functionalized living cells (HV) were successively modified on each side of BC through biological metabolism and bio-orthogonal reaction. As the outermost layer, the TBG layer could generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon light illumination to efficiently combat bacterial infections. The HV layer was the inner layer near the diabetic wound, which served as a living factory to continuously secrete VEGF to accelerate wound repair by promoting fibroblast proliferation and angiogenesis. The sandwiched structural artificial skin HV@BC@TBG was non-toxic, biocompatible, and demonstrated its ability to significantly accelerate the healing process of infected diabetic wounds, rendering it a promising next-generation medical therapy for chronic wound management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.