Rapidly light-activated surgical protein glue inspired by mussel adhesion and insect structural crosslinking

Abstract

Currently approved surgical tissue glues do not satisfy the requirements for ideal bioadhesives due to limited adhesion in wet conditions and severe cytotoxicity. Herein, we report a new light-activated, mussel protein-based bioadhesive (LAMBA) inspired by mussel adhesion and insect dityrosine crosslinking chemistry. LAMBA exhibited substantially stronger bulk wet tissue adhesion than commercially available fibrin glue and good biocompatibility in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Besides, the easily tunable, light-activated crosslinking enabled an effective on-demand wound closure and facilitated wound healing. Based on these outstanding properties, LAMBA holds great potential as an ideal surgical tissue glue for diverse medical applications, including sutureless wound closures of skin and internal organs.

Keywords: Dityrosine crosslinks; Light-activated hydrogel; Mussel adhesive protein; Protein adhesive; Tissue adhesive.