Oxygen-Delivering Gel Heals Chronic Wounds & Reduces Amputation Risk | News Medical

As populations age and rates of diabetes continue to rise, the incidence of chronic wounds – injuries that resist healing – is increasing, placing more individuals at risk for amputation. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have developed an oxygen-delivering gel with the potential to heal these debilitating injuries and prevent limb loss.

Chronic wounds are defined as those that fail to heal within a month and affect an estimated 12 million people globally, including approximately 4.5 million in the United States. Alarmingly, around one in five patients with chronic wounds ultimately require amputation, a life-altering procedure.

The newly developed gel addresses a fundamental problem in chronic wound healing: a lack of oxygen in the deepest layers of damaged tissue. Insufficient oxygen leads to prolonged inflammation, creating an environment where bacteria thrive and tissue breaks down instead of regenerating. “Chronic wounds don’t heal by themselves,” explains Iman Noshadi, UCR associate professor of bioengineering and leader of the research team. “There are four stages to healing chronic wounds: inflammation, vascularization where tissue starts making blood vessels, remodeling, and regeneration or healing. In any of these stages, lack of a stable, consistent oxygen supply is a big problem.”

This oxygen deprivation, known as hypoxia, disrupts the normal healing process. The UCR researchers’ gel aims to prevent hypoxia through a novel approach detailed in a paper published in Nature Communications Materials. The gel is soft, flexible, and composed of water and a choline-based liquid that is antibacterial, nontoxic, and biocompatible. When combined with a small battery – similar to those found in hearing aids – the gel functions as a miniature electrochemical system, splitting water molecules to generate a continuous stream of oxygen.

Unlike existing oxygen therapies that primarily target the wound surface, this gel conforms to the unique contours of each wound, reaching crevices where oxygen levels are typically lowest and infection risk is highest. The material molds precisely to the damaged tissue before setting, ensuring comprehensive oxygen delivery.

The continuous nature of oxygen delivery is crucial. Vascularization, the formation of new blood vessels, can take weeks, and intermittent bursts of oxygen are insufficient to promote healing. The new system provides sustained oxygen levels for up to a month, facilitating a transition from a non-healing wound to one that behaves like a normal injury.

In testing conducted on diabetic and older mice – chosen because their wounds closely mimic those seen in older human patients – untreated injuries failed to heal and often proved fatal. However, wounds treated with the oxygen-generating gel, which was replaced weekly, closed within approximately 23 days, and the animals survived. “We could make this patch as a product where the gel may need to be renewed periodically,” says Prince David Okoro, a bioengineering doctoral candidate at UCR and co-author of the study.

The gel’s composition offers an additional benefit. Choline, a key ingredient, possesses properties that help regulate the immune system and reduce excessive inflammation. Chronic wounds are often characterized by an overabundance of reactive oxygen species, unstable molecules that damage cells and prolong inflammation. By increasing stable oxygen levels while simultaneously calming the immune response, the gel helps restore balance and promotes healing.

“There are bandages that absorb fluid, and some that release antimicrobial agents,” Okoro notes. “But none of them really address hypoxia, which is the fundamental problem. We’re tackling that directly.”

The potential applications of this research extend beyond wound care. Oxygen and nutrient deprivation pose significant challenges in the field of tissue and organ engineering, a primary focus of the Noshadi laboratory. “When the thickness of a tissue increases, it’s hard to diffuse that tissue with what it needs, so cells start dying,” Noshadi explains. “This project can be seen as a bridge to creating and sustaining larger organs for people in need of them.”

While the gel represents a promising advancement, UCR bioengineer and study co-author Baishali Kanjilal acknowledges that some factors contributing to the prevalence of chronic wounds are beyond the scope of a topical treatment. These include rising rates of diabetes, aging populations, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles, which can weaken immune responses. “It’s hard to get to societal roots of our problems,” she says. “But this innovation represents a chance to reduce amputations, improve quality of life, and give the body what it needs to heal itself.”