Hydrogels have become the standard for wound healing—but there’s a real problem with them.
They absorb fluids from the wound while keeping it protected, hydrated and oxygenated, but they can stretch and expand the wound, causing pain and increasing the risk of bacterial infection.
Now, researchers from Tokyo University of Science have come up with a new type of hydrogel that doesn’t have the usual problems—and they’ve done this by adding a compound from seaweed to the mix.
The new gel is made up of calcium carbonate, carbonated water and alginate, a biocompatible substance that’s found in seaweed.
It has all the usual wound-healing properties, but it also has lower adhesion and swelling, the researchers discovered after they tested the formula on cell cultures and laboratory mice.
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