Endogenous stimuli-responsive separating microneedles to inhibit hypertrophic scar through remodeling the pathological microenvironment.

ABSTRACT: Hypertrophic scar (HS) considerably affects the appearance and causes tissue dysfunction in patients. The low bioavailability of 5-fluorouracil poses a challenge for HS treatment. Here we show a separating microneedle (MN) consisting of photo-crosslinked GelMA and 5-FuA-Pep-MA prodrug in response to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the HS pathological microenvironment. In vivo experiments in female mice demonstrate that the retention of MN tips in the tissue provides a slowly sustained drug release manner. Importantly, drug-loaded MNs could remodel the pathological microenvironment of female rabbit ear HS tissues by ROS scavenging and MMPs consumption. Bulk and single cell RNA sequencing analyses confirm that drug-loaded MN

SUBMITTER: Yang ZR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10917775 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature