A cooling wound dressing for accelerating healing under sunlight

Wound healing is greatly influenced by the local skin environment, encompassing factors such as temperature and cleanliness. Nevertheless, the inadequate thermal regulation exhibited by traditional wound dressings can significantly impede the healing process, particularly when they are exposed to the intense heat of sunlight. In recent years, however, researchers have developed a groundbreaking daytime radiative cooling (DRC) dressing that is specifically designed to prevent wound overheating in hot outdoor environments. This innovative dressing creates an optimal wound microenvironment, effectively reducing inflammation and subsequently accelerating the healing process. It represents a significant leap forward in mitigating the deleterious effects of sunlight on wound healing, thus propelling the progress and enhancement of biomedical solutions for extreme environments conditions.

As the largest organ of the body and its primary barrier against external threats, the skin is highly vulnerable to injury and urgently requires prompt healing.1 High environment temperature, a pivotal factor in skin damage, can trigger oxidative stress, disrupt the wound’s ecological balance, provoke inflammation, and, ultimately, impede the healing process. While numerous wound dressings, including gauze, foam, and hydrogels, have been extensively studied for their potential to expedite healing, they lack the capacity to provide effective passive thermal regulation. When used with these dressings, the local wound environment can rapidly overheat (>40°C) upon brief exposure to sunlight, leading to compromised healing outcomes. Consequently, the development of an innovative dressing design that can maintain an optimal local skin thermal environment, especially in outdoor conditions with elevated temperature, is imperative for promoting wound tissue regeneration.