Abstract
The main impediment to medical application of biomaterial-based adhesives is their poor wet adhesion strength due to hydration-induced softening and dissolution. To solve this problem, we mimicked the wound healing process found in tunicates, which use a nanofiber structure and pyrogallol group to heal any damage on its tunic under sea water. We fabricated a tunicate-mimetic hydrogel adhesive based on a chitin nanofiber/gallic acid (a pyrogallol acid) composite. The pyrogallol group-mediated cross-linking and the nanofibrous structures improved the dissolution resistance and cohesion strength of the hydrogel compared to the amorphous polymeric hydrogels in wet condition. The tunicate-mimetic adhesives showed higher adhesion strength between fully hydrated skin tissues than did fibrin glue and mussel-mimetic adhesives. The tunicate mimetic hydrogels were produced at low cost from recyclable and abundant raw materials. This tunicate-mimetic adhesive system is an example of how natural materials can be engineered for biomedical applications.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 104-112 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Acta Biomaterialia |
Volume | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jul 2015 |
Keywords
- Chitin nanofibers
- Nanofibrous hydrogels
- Pyrogallol
- Tunicates
- Underwater adhesives