Currently, there are no existing surgical tissue glues which exhibit strong tissue adhesion as well as biocompatibility in the body. Despite several advantages of biological tissue adhesives such as biocompatibility and biodegradability, poor mechanical properties and long curing time still remained as unsolved limitations for the clinical use. In the present work, we employed photochemical cross-linking strategy for recombinant mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs), which is based on the coupling of two adjacent tyrosine residues into dityrosine adducts using visible blue light. This gelation system is expected to be used for <i>in situ</i> bioadhesives in terms of convenient handling, short irradiation time (&lt;~60 s), and non-cytotoxicity of light source. Within the formulation investigated, swelling and mechanical properties of the resultant hydrogels could be easily controlled by adjusting the crosslinking conditions in the system. This hydrogel glue exhibited 4-fold stronger wet tissue adhesion strength than that of the clinically used fibrin glue. In addition, cytotoxicity of the hydrogel was assessed by contacting extracts of the hydrogel directly with monolayers of HaCaT keratinocyte cells, demonstrating that intrinsic cytotoxicity caused by gel-extracts becomes negligible. Furthermore, it strongly bound to the hemorrhaging tissues suturelessly and was rapidly solidified to serve a bleeding-arrest barrier and adhesive at the wounds created on the back of rat. Histological analysis through H&E staining showed that MAP-based hydrogel-covered incision exhibited superior healing with a newly formed dermis. Thanks to its sufficient adhesion strength, rapid curing time, and good biocompatibility, this single component protein-based adhesive biomaterial holds high potential for medical applications in hemostasis and sutureless wound closure of skin and internal organ tissues.

Photoresponsible mussel-derived surgical tissue glue

249th National Meeting (2015)

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