Applications of Photocatalytic Materials for Diabetic Wound Healing

ABSTRACT

Diabetic chronic wounds, particularly diabetic foot ulcers, remain a major clinical challenge because of persistent infection, excessive inflammation, impaired angiogenesis, tissue hypoxia, oxidative stress, and a hyperglycemic wound microenvironment. Conventional therapies, including debridement, antibiotics, advanced dressings, growth factors, and cell-based strategies, have improved wound management but are often insufficient to reverse the pathological healing arrest of diabetic wounds. Visible-light-driven photocatalysis has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy owing to its spatiotemporal controllability, relatively favorable biosafety compared with ultraviolet irradiation, and capacity to generate reactive oxygen species in situ. Upon visible-light activation, photocatalytic materials can exert broad-spectrum antibacterial effects through multi-target oxidative damage to bacterial membranes, proteins, and nucleic acids, thereby reducing the risk of conventional drug resistance. In addition, rationally designed photocatalytic systems can modulate inflammatory responses, regulate redox homeostasis, promote macrophage polarization, enhance angiogenesis, improve hypoxia, and even utilize excessive glucose as a pathological substrate for glucose consumption and hydrogen generation. Recent advances in TiO2, CeO2, heterojunction photocatalysts, nanozyme-integrated platforms, photocatalytic hydrogels, multifunctional wound dressings, and smart responsive biomaterials have demonstrated encouraging potential in accelerating diabetic wound healing in preclinical models. Nevertheless, several key barriers still limit clinical translation, including the narrow therapeutic window of reactive oxygen species, insufficient light penetration depth, uncertain long-term biosafety of nanomaterials, lack of standardized irradiation parameters, and limited high-quality large-animal and clinical evidence. Future studies should focus on precise bandgap engineering, heterojunction and nanozyme-based redox regulation, integration of photocatalysis with photothermal therapy and controlled drug release, development of intelligent theranostic dressings, and rigorous translational evaluation. Overall, visible-light photocatalysis represents a highly attractive and multifunctional platform for diabetic wound repair, with the potential to provide new solutions for infection control, microenvironment remodeling, and tissue regeneration.