Researchers at the University of California, Riverside say they have developed a flexible, battery-powered gel patch that generates oxygen inside hard-to-heal wounds—an approach aimed at countering deep-tissue oxygen deprivation that can stall recovery and contribute to amputations. In experiments in diabetic and older mice, the team reported that wounds that often remained open—and were sometimes fatal—closed in about 23 days when treated with the oxygen-generating patch.
Chronic wounds—generally defined as wounds that remain open for longer than a month—can be difficult to treat, in part because oxygen cannot easily reach the deepest layers of damaged tissue, researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) said.
In a UCR-led study described in Communications Materials, the team reported designing a soft gel that continuously produces oxygen at the wound site using a small battery-powered electrochemical setup. The material combines water with a choline-based liquid incorporated into a hydrogel electrolyte; the researchers described the choline-based component as antibacterial, nontoxic and biocompatible.
When connected to a small button-cell battery—similar to those used in hearing aids—the gel acts like a miniature electrochemical device, splitting water molecules and steadily releasing oxygen. The researchers said the patch is intended to address hypoxia, the oxygen-deprived state that can keep wounds stuck in prolonged inflammation.
"Chronic wounds don't heal by themselves," said Iman Noshadi, an associate professor of bioengineering at UCR who led the work. "There are four stages to healing chronic wounds: inflammation, vascularization where tissue starts making blood vessels, remodeling, and regeneration or healing. In any of these stages, lack of a stable, consistent oxygen supply is a big problem."
According to the university’s summary of the research, chronic wounds affect about 12 million people worldwide each year, including roughly 4.5 million in the United States, and the team estimated that about one in five patients ultimately faces amputation.
In tests in diabetic and older mice, the researchers reported that untreated wounds failed to close and were often fatal. When the oxygen-producing patch was applied and replaced weekly, wounds closed in about 23 days and the animals survived.
"We could make this patch as a product where the gel may need to be renewed periodically," said Prince David Okoro, a UCR bioengineering doctoral candidate in Noshadi’s lab and a co-author.
The researchers also pointed to potential anti-inflammatory effects of the choline-based component, suggesting it may help regulate immune responses in addition to supplying oxygen.
Beyond wound care, the team said a similar oxygen-generating approach could be useful in tissue engineering, where the lack of oxygen diffusion can limit the size and viability of lab-grown tissues and organs.
The paper is titled "A smart self-oxygenating system for localized and sustained oxygen delivery in bioengineered tissue constructs" and appears in Communications Materials.
