Bio-functional G-molecular hydrogels for accelerated wound healing

Development of biomedical materials for proper collagen deposition is of great importance to accelerate wound healing and thus achieving skin regeneration. Here, we report guanosine quartet hydrogels loaded with recombinant human-source collagen (G4-RHC) that can be used as medical patches for wound repair. The G4-RHC hydrogels are flexible, and when wrapped onto the skin surface, supplies proper RHC deposition for the wound. We demonstrate the efficiency of the hydrogels through in vitro assays, in vivo wound healing mouse models and histological analysis. G4-RHC hydrogels promote wound healing and facilitate skin generation due to the ability of the deposited RHC to recruit macrophages and fibroblasts to the wound site and induce their proliferation and migration. Given these features of this flexible material, the synthesized G4-RHC hydrogels hold great potential in biomedical applications involving tissue regeneration.