New oxygen-delivering gel offers hope for healing diabetic wounds

As diabetes and aging populations lead to more chronic wounds, millions risk amputation. Researchers at UC Riverside have created an oxygen-releasing gel that helps heal serious injuries, potentially preventing limb loss. 

Chronic wounds, which fail to heal in a month, affect about 12 million people worldwide each year. A key factor in their persistence is hypoxia, a severe oxygen deficiency in the deep tissue layers.

Without enough oxygen, wounds stay inflamed, encouraging bacterial growth and tissue breakdown. To address this, UC Riverside researcher Iman Noshadi and his team designed a flexible, soft hydrogel that acts as an on-site oxygen producer.

Reported in Nature Communications Materials, the gel combines water with a biocompatible, antibacterial choline liquid.

When connected to a small battery similar to hearing aid power sources, the gel functions like a tiny electrochemical device, splitting water molecules to produce a steady oxygen supply for up to a month. Unlike traditional treatments, this gel conforms to the wound’s shape, reaching deep areas with severe oxygen deficiency.

In preclinical trials on older and diabetic mice, the results were dramatic. While untreated injuries failed to heal and were often fatal, wounds treated with the weekly-replaced oxygen patch completely closed in approximately 23 days.

Beyond immediate wound care, the gel’s choline component helps calm overactive immune responses and reduces damaging inflammation. The research team also hopes this continuous oxygen-delivery technology can eventually bridge the gap in sustaining lab-grown replacement organs and complex tissue constructs.