Healing chronically infected wounds with living dressings

When a wound heals, ideally the new tissue fully closes a skin lesion. But with chronic wounds, seemingly harmless tissue damages can turn into permanent health problems. In some chronic wounds with infections, antibiotics or disinfectants can no longer get to the germs. To counteract this, Empa researchers have now developed a dressing containing probiotic lactobacilli.

In this interview with MEDICA-tradefair.com, Dr. Qun Ren explains how the probiotic dressing can improve wound healing.

Dr. Ren, what types of wounds could the dressing be used for?

Dr. Qun Ren: Our probiotic wound dressings are expected to be used for the treatment of burn wounds and chronic wounds. We have done the proof of concept study using commercially available wound dressings as carriers for our probiotics. Currently, we are in the process of developing optimized delivery systems for probiotics.

How exactly does the dressing support wound healing?

Ren: The active components are derived from the encapsulated probiotics. Probiotics can not only combat bacteria and biofilm formation but also induce re-epithelization and collagen formation, promoting tissue regeneration. The mechanisms behind this are diverse and not completely understood yet. It is very likely that different components synergistically play a supportive role in wound healing.

What are the advantages of treating wounds with a dressing containing lactic acid bacteria?

Ren: The advantages of using probiotics are multifaceted. On the one side, it can be used as a single entity to both treat infections and promote tissue regeneration at the same time. On the other side, it allows sustainable release of active compounds, unlike the conventional approach, for example antibiotics which often leads to a rapid decline in efficacy with prolonged usage.

Could the method be used in other areas outside of wound treatment in medical technology?

Ren: Indeed, probiotics have been used to coat urinary catheters to prevent and treat catheter-associated urinary tract infections. They are also evaluated for their potential in fighting against neurodegenerative diseases such as mood and behavior disorders, neuroinflammation, and autoimmunity. Furthermore, the beneficial effects of probiotics on bone diseases have also been extensively studied.