Modulation of the wound healing response through oxidation active materials

Abstract

Oxidative stress originally gained attention as key pathological process in a variety of disease states and conditions (e.g., acute lung injury, sepsis, chronic degenerative neurological diseases). Furthermore, it oxidative stress has also been identified as one of the key mechanisms to tissue toxicity brought on by nanomaterials and implant biomaterials. Yet, despite these origins, newer research has started to view oxidative stress and not simply pathology, but as a physiologically relevant signaling system, working in concert with the more traditional cell signaling cascades (e.g., growth factor signaling, cytokine release). As a result, a reinvigoration of research in regenerative medicine has begun looking at oxidative stress as a potential tuning mechanism to enhance the natural wound healing process. In this chapter, a summary of the biological aspects of oxidative stress is presented as well as a current state of the art approaches used in designing biomaterials to actively participate in the oxidative stress signaling.