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Colorimetric Hydrogel Dressing with Smartphone Detector for Point-of-Care Wound pH Monitoring

Cherifi, K.; Christodoulopoulos, K.; Kizilkaya, A.; Touba Toure, M.; Toupchinejad, F.; Matoori, S.

2026-08-10 bioengineering
10.64898/2026.08.07.742070 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers are typically more alkaline than healing wounds, making wound pH a valuable diagnostic and prognostic marker. However, point-of-care pH monitoring remains limited by the availability of point-of-care wound pH sensing systems that offer quantitative pH determination, low toxicity, and small portable detectors. Here, we report a colorimetric pH-sensing wound dressing that enables in situ pH detection using a conventional smartphone camera. The anionic pH-sensitive dye HPTS was loaded onto cationic microparticles and embedded within a calcium-crosslinked alginate hydrogel. Across the clinically relevant range of pH 6.0-9.0, increasing pH produced a progressively more intense yellow coloration, quantified through the blue channel of smartphone-acquired RGB images. The dressing displayed a strong, rapid, and reversible signal in vitro with low dye release. In a full-thickness excisional wound model in mice, wound pH changes were detected in vivo. The combination of a pH-sensitive colorimetric hydrogel with a conventional smartphone detector offers accessible wound pH monitoring at the point-of-care.

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