Wound-contractible hydrogel for skin regeneration, a new insight from mechanobiology

Summary The mechanical forces of hydrogel dressing on skin can rebuild wound shapes, but the underlying mechanobiological functions were elusive. Recent studies conducted by Aragona et al. and Hu et al. revealed that hydrogel-induced skin stretch was beneficial to wound healing because it initiated the remodeling of cytoskeleton, promoted the epidermal stem cell renewal, and regulated the damage-associated inflammation. To fabricate such a wound-contractible hydrogel dressing, the shape-deformation and tissue-adhesion strategies should be highlighted.