Application of near-infrared light responsive biomaterials for improving the wound healing process: A review

Despite aiming to improve the healing process, the wound dressings that have been developed thus far still present high production costs, uncontrolled drug delivery, and are unable to fully re-establish all features of native skin. In this field, the development of light-responsive dressings has been emerging due to the possibility of controlling the delivery of therapeutic agents both in time and space. Moreover, this strategy has also been explored to guide the materials’ polymerization/crosslinking, as well as to mediate therapeutic approaches based on photothermal or photodynamic effects. Among the different approaches, the utilization of near-infrared (NIR) light holds a high translational potential due to the minimal interactions with the biological components and higher penetration capacity in human tissues. In this way, different biomaterials responsive to NIR light have been produced and explored in the production of active wound dressings. Therefore, this review aims to provide an overview of the advantages of NIR light to the wound healing process, in particular, its thermal, photodynamic, photobiomodulation, and imaging potential. Furthermore, the antibacterial, drug-release, and cellular responses that can be obtained with the application of NIR-responsive wound dressings are also described focusing on its impact on the healing process.