Multifunctional hydrogel containing platelet camouflaged ultra-small silver nanoparticles accelerates diabetic wound healing in Type 1 Diabetic rats

Abstract Bacterial infection and impaired angiogenes are always great obstacles in the wound healing of diabetes. A diabetic wound causes thousands of infections or deaths around the world each year, so the problem of multidrug-resistant (MDR) cannot be ignored. Here, we synthesized a new ultra-small silver nanoparticles (usAgNPs) and conjugated usAgNPs with platelets (usAgNPs-PL) and loaded into CMC hydrogel (usAgNPs-PL/CMC hydrogel), and treated diabetic wound healing in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat models. The usAgNPs-PL/CMC hydrogel was characterized by SEM, TEM and XPS spectra. The antibacterial ability was detected by XTT dyeing, ROS, bacterial biofilm assay, bacterial activity, et al . The results showed that usAgNPs had smaller particle size (13 nm) than traditional silver nanoparticles and evenly distributed. The Ag + released from usAgNPs can kill bacteria by interfering with bacterial intracellular metabolism; generation of ROS; damaging cell membrane integrity and inhibiting biofilm formation. And combined platelets were enhancing the angiogenesis of endothelial cells by regulating VEGF, PI3K-AKT. Together, this work describes the first example of constructing an all-in-one CMC hydrogel for antimicrobial diabetes wound treatment and showcases the promise of combined antimicrobials and angiogenesis achieved by using the CMC hydrogel in biomedicine applications.