Chronic skin
wound caused by diabetic disease is very common worldwide. Moreover, there is a shortage of effective curing technology in clinic. In this work, we developed a novel technology using thermosensitive
hydrogel on
wound top combined with
insulin injection. The efficiency and mechanism of this technology were investigated in a diabetic mouse model. Dorsal-paired 8-10 mm diameter
wounds were created in 12 mice. The wound healing rate was determined over a 28-day interval in healthy control (Control), control with diabetes (DControl),
poloxamer treatment (Pox), and
poloxamer plus
insulin injection (Poxin) mice. Histological specimens were observed in all samples. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to measure the relative expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and
transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) in
wound tissues at 7, 14, and 28 days. Compared with DControl animals, those treated with Poxin showed accelerated
wound closure and healing rate (p < 0.05); expression of both α-SMA and TGF-β1 was significantly higher than that of the DControl and Pox animals during the first 7 days postoperation, but a significant decrease at day 14. Therefore, we concluded that
hydrogel combined with
insulin accelerated wound healing. Controlling the
glucose level via
insulin injection is more beneficial than
hydrogel alone for healing chronic
wounds, potentially through the increase of α-SMA and TGF-β1 expression in early phase.