All posts tagged: Wounds

New sunlight-powered nanospray heals infected diabetic wounds

New sunlight-powered nanospray heals infected diabetic wounds

Published by Jenni Sidey

Chronic infected wounds can take over daily life, especially for people living with diabetes. These wounds often refuse to heal, cause constant pain, and invite dangerous infections that resist antibiotics. Doctors struggle to treat them, and patients can feel trapped in a cycle of care that never seems to end. New research now points to a surprising helper in this fight: ordinary sunlight. A team of scientists has developed a nanospray that uses natural light to kill bacteria, stop bleeding, ease pain, and speed healing, all at once. The work focuses on diabetic foot ulcers, one of the most serious and common chronic wounds. The findings suggest a future where treating infected wounds becomes simpler, less painful, and far more accessible. The study describes a new material called SPS, short for sunlight powered spray. It is made from tiny self assembled particles that combine a near infrared light sensitive compound with chitosan oligosaccharides, a substance derived from natural sugars. When sunlight hits the spray, it activates a powerful response that targets infection and supports healing, …

Strips of dried placenta help wounds heal with less scarring

Strips of dried placenta help wounds heal with less scarring

Published by skeptic

A scanning electron micrograph of a section through a human placenta Science Photo Library Skin wounds heal with less scarring when thin sheets of dried human placenta are applied as dressings, according to research in mice and people. The placenta’s healing properties have been known since at least the early 1900s, when the tissue was sometimes applied to burns to reduce scarring. However, the treatment fell out of favour due to the potential risk of disease transmission. Now, with new ways to safely sterilise and preserve placentas, such dressings are once again gaining attention. In particular, researchers have been investigating the healing properties of the amniotic membrane, the innermost layer of the placenta that faces the fetus during pregnancy and contains a rich variety of growth factors and immune-modulating proteins. Several US companies have started harvesting amniotic membranes from placentas donated after planned Caesarean sections. They peel this thin membrane from the rest of the placenta, freeze-dry it, cut it to standard sizes, package it and sterilise it with radiation. This preserves its growth factors and …

Living hydrogel grown by fungi could revolutionize wound healing

Living hydrogel grown by fungi could revolutionize wound healing

Published by Jenni Sidey

When you think about materials used in medicine, you likely picture metals, plastics, or synthetic gels. Researchers at the University of Utah are asking you to imagine something very different. Their latest work explores a hydrogel that grows itself, built not in a factory, but by a living fungus. The research brings together engineers, materials scientists, and biologists to examine whether a soil-dwelling mold can form a soft, layered material that behaves much like human tissue. The study focuses on Marquandomyces marquandii, a filamentous fungus recently reassigned to its own genus. The findings suggest this organism can naturally assemble a thick, water-rich hydrogel with mechanical traits suited for biomedical use. “Hydrogels are regarded as a promising alternative for applications in tissue regeneration and engineering, cell culture scaffolds, cell bioreactors, and wearable devices, owing to their ability to closely mimic the viscoelastic properties of soft tissues,” writes lead author Atul Agrawal, an engineer at the University of Utah, along with his collaborators. Weekly progression of M. marquandii growth on PDB under stationary liquid fermentation over 4 …