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Review
. 2025 May 22:20:6423-6446.
doi: 10.2147/IJN.S514000. eCollection 2025.

Polymeric Nanomedicines in Diabetic Wound Healing: Applications and Future Perspectives

Zeyao Chen  1 , Kakei Chan  1 , Xin Li  1   2 , Li Gong  3 , Yingjie Ma  4 , Chiwen Huang  5 , Yan Lu  6 , Li Wang  1 , Chunli Piao  1
Affiliations
Review

Polymeric Nanomedicines in Diabetic Wound Healing: Applications and Future Perspectives

Zeyao Chen et al. Int J Nanomedicine. .

Abstract

The management of diabetic wound continues to pose significant clinical obstacles, primarily attributed to bacterial infections, excessive inflammation, oxidative stress, and impaired angiogenesis. These pathological factors not only severely affect patient well-being but also create considerable burden on medical services. Current managements often show limited efficacy, necessitating the exploration of alternative therapeutic strategies. Polymeric nanomedicines (PNs), owing to their nanoscale properties, enhanced cellular uptake, stability, bioavailability, and biocompatibility, have been broadly utilized for diabetic wound treatment. PNs demonstrate remarkable capabilities in microbial inhibition, inflammation regulation, oxidative stress mitigation, and vascular network formation, particularly when combined with various agents, including organic substances (eg, exosomes), inorganic substances (eg, metals), and biomaterials (eg, chitosan, hyaluronic acid, and hydrogels). This article systematically examines recent progress in PN-based interventions for diabetic wound recovery, highlighting the pivotal role of PNs in mitigating bacterial infection, modulating inflammatory responses, and promoting cellular regeneration. Additionally, we provide a novel perspective on the multifunctionality of PNs and their potential for overcoming the limitations of conventional therapies. Overall, PNs represent an innovative and promising approach to diabetic wound management, outperforming conventional therapies in stability, targeted delivery, and multifunctionality. In the future, investigations should concentrate on refining PNs formulations and administration strategies so as to enhance biocompatibility, and conducting well-designed clinical trials to validate their therapeutic efficacy.

Keywords: diabetic wounds healing; drug delivery; nanotechnology; polymeric nanomedicines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Phases of physiological and diabetic wound healing.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structural illustration of Polymeric Nanomedicines. A. Polymer Conjugates: can be conjugated to drugs, proteins, antibodies, and peptides. B. Dendrimers: hyperbranced with drugs being encapsulated within the internal cavities. C. Polymeric nanocapsules: a core enclosed by a polymeric shell. D.Nanogels: hydrophilic polymeric networks with encapsulation of medicines, DNA, siRNA, peptides, and proteins.E.Polymeric micelles: contains mixed micellar formulations with a hydrophobic inner core and a outer hydrophilic shell. F. Polymer nanoparticles: colloidal carriers with a hydrophobic core and surface components.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scheme illustrating the application of polymeric nanomedicines in the treatment of Diabetic Wound Healing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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