Wounds are a prominent cause of morbidity and impaired quality of life affecting ~8.6 million patients in the U.S. annually with costs exceeding $25 billion. Despite many advances in our understanding of the wound healing process, the treatment of full-thickness wounds has focused primarily on regenerating dermis, while neglecting or even impeding re-epithelialization of the epidermal layer. We hypothesize that a novel full-thickness wound dressing with engineered physical guidance cues, including a Sharklet micropattern on the apical layer of the dressing, will encourage autologous epidermal healing via guided cell migration. Toward this goal, we have evaluated human epidermal keratinocyte (HEK) migration on a Sharklet micropattern in a modified scratch-wound assay versus a smooth substrate. Results indicate that this Sharklet micropattern induced highly oriented migration of HEKs on fibronectin-coated polydimethysiloxane elastomer (PDMSe) surfaces that led to 33% faster closure of a simulated wound <i>in vitro</i>. While PDMSe was used as a representative substrate, Sharklet micropatterns exhibit similar performance with other cell types regardless of surface chemistry. Consequently, we plan to assess Sharklet micropattern performance levels and possibly improve upon initial results utilizing our novel biodegradable polyethylene (PEG)-block-polycaprolactone (PCL) hydrogel platform that will be applied to full-thickness wound dressings and tested for reduced time to wound closure.

Biodegradable, micropatterned wound dressings for enhanced epithelialization

249th National Meeting (2015)

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