Wound healing is one of the most important and basic issues faced by the medical community. In this paper, we present biomass-composited inverse opal particles with a series of advanced features for drug delivery and wound healing. The particles were derived by using chitosan biomass to negatively replicate spherical colloid crystal templates. Because of the interconnected porous structures, various forms of active drugs, including fibroblast growth factor could be loaded into the void spaces of the inverse opal particles and encapsulated by temperature-responsive hydrogel. This endowed the composited particles with the capability of intelligent drug release through the relatively high temperature caused by the inflammation reaction at wound sites. Because the structural colors and characteristic reflection peaks of the composited inverse opal particles are blue-shifted during the release process, the drug delivery can be monitored in real time. It was demonstrated that the biomass-composited microcarriers were able to promote angiogenesis, collagen deposition, and granulation-tissue formation as well as reduce inflammation and thus significantly contributed to wound healing. These features point to the potential value of multifunctional biomass inverse opal particles in biomedicine.
Keywords: chitosan; drug delivery; inverse opal; structural color; wound healing.