An Integrally Formed Janus Hydrogel for Robust Wet-Tissue Adhesive and Anti-Postoperative Adhesion

Haiyan Wang, Xin Yi, Tao Liu*, Jing Liu, Qinan Wu, Yonghui Ding, Zhenzhen Liu*, Qingwen Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

Facile fabrication of asymmetrically adhesive hydrogel with robust wet tissue adhesion simultaneously with effective anti-postoperative adhesion still remains a great challenge. In this work, an integrally formed Janus hydrogel is facilely fabricated in one step by controlling the interfacial distribution of free carboxyl groups on the two sides of hydrogels. At a lower stirring speed, the generated bigger sized emulsion droplets mainly occupy the top surface of hydrogel, which effectively hinders the exposition of carboxyl groups on the top surface, driving them to be more distributed on the bottom surface, ultimately resulting in the poor adhesion of top surface but robust adhesion of bottom surface to various wet tissue even underwater. The difference in adhesive strength achieves as high as 20 times between the two surfaces. In vivo rabbit experiment outcomes clearly validate that the bottom surface of hydrogel firmly adheres to the stomach defect, and the other opposite surface can efficiently address the postoperative adhesion problem. Besides, this hydrogel exhibits superior mechanical toughness and conductivity which has been used as a highly adhesive strain sensor to real-time monitor the beating heart in vivo. This simple yet effective strategy provides a much more feasible approach for creating Janus hydrogels bioadhesives.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2300394
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume35
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 8 2023

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51903093 and 32001264), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2023A1515012167), and Project of Key Disciplines of Forestry Engineering of Bureau of Education of Guangzhou Municipality. All in vivo animal surgeries and ex vivo experiments were approved by the Laboratory Animal Ethics Committee of South China Agricultural University (approval number 2021E030). And the rabbit experiments were carried out in the Animal Hospital of South China Agricultural University. The porcine skin and other tissues used were obtained from a market.

Keywords

  • anti-postoperative adhesion
  • asymmetric adhesion
  • hydrogels
  • integrally formed preparation
  • robust adhesion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • General Materials Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An Integrally Formed Janus Hydrogel for Robust Wet-Tissue Adhesive and Anti-Postoperative Adhesion'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this