Fig. 4: In vivo therapeutic efficacy evaluation of FFs-ICG hydrogels in an MRSA-infected murine wound model.

a Timeline of the treatment and evaluation process of FFs-ICG hydrogel in an MRSA-infected wound healing mice model. Created in BioRender. Xuan, Q. (2025) https://BioRender.com/e9mjxve. Wound area quantification (n = 5) (b) and the corresponding representative macroscopic wound images (Scale bar: 1 cm) (c) of MRSA-infected mice after various treatments. d Quantification of MRSA survival rate (n = 3; data are presented as individual points) in the infected skin tissues after distinct treatments using CFU counting method. Lys (p = 0.0001), RFs (p = 0.0331), FFs (p = 0.0025), ICG (p < 0.0001), RFs-ICG (p < 0.0001), FFs-ICG (p < 0.0001) vs. PBS control. Representative H&E staining (e), Ki-67-staining (f), and Giemsa-staining (g), iNOS and CD206-staining (h) images of infected tissues from various treatment groups on day 14 for the analysis of dermis and epidermis regeneration, cell proliferation, survival bacteria, and macrophage polarization, respectively. In Fig. 4e, g represents granulation tissue, and NE represents newly formed epidermis, and ND represents newly formed dermis. In Fig. 4g, the red arrows represent the residual bacteria. the fluorescence intensity quantification (i) (n = 3; data are presented as individual points) and the corresponding representative ThT-staining images (j) of wounds for the analysis of in vivo thermal-induced disassembling behaviors of FFs-ICG hydrogel. Scale bars: (e) 2 mm (left), 500 μm (right); (f–h) 500 μm; (h) 100 μm; (j) 200 μm. The data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (S.D). Statistical significance was analyzed by one-way ANOVA using GraphPad Prism 8, followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test for pairwise comparisons. Statistical significance was defined as *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.