Hernia repair mesh is associated with a number of complications, including adhesions and limited mobility, due to insufficient mechanical strength and nonresorbability. Among them, visceral adhesions are one of the most serious complications of patch repair. In this study, a degradable patch with an antiadhesive layer is prepared for hernia repair by 3D printing and electrospinning techniques using polycaprolactone, polyvinyl alcohol, and soybean peptide (SP). The study into the physicochemical properties of the patch is found that it has adequate mechanical strength requirements (16 N cm-1 ) and large elongation at break, which are superior than commercial polypropylene patches. In vivo and in vitro experiments show that human umbilical vein endothelial cells proliferated well on composite patches, and showed excellent biocompatibility with the host and little adhesion through a rat abdominal wall defect model. In conclusion, the results of this study show that composite patch can effectively reduce the occurrence of adhesions, while the addition of SP in the patch further enhances its biocompatibility. It is believed that a regenerative biological patch with great potential in hernia repair provides a new strategy for the development of new biomimetic biodegradable patches.
Keywords: 3D printing; double-layer degradable patch; electrospinning; hernia repair; tissue engineering.
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