Volume 41, Issue 24 pp. 3729-3738
Recent Advances

Mussel-Inspired Adhesive Hydrogels: Chemistry and Biomedical Applications

Jingsi Chen

Jingsi Chen

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 1H9 Canada

Search for more papers by this author
Linbo Han

Linbo Han

College of Health Science and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518118 China

Search for more papers by this author
Jifang Liu

Jifang Liu

The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510700 China

Search for more papers by this author
Hongbo Zeng

Corresponding Author

Hongbo Zeng

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 1H9 Canada

E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 24 August 2023
Citations: 2

Dedicated to the Special Issue of Hydrogels.

Comprehensive Summary

Adhesive hydrogels are an emerging class of hydrogels that combine three-dimensional hydrated networks with adhesive properties. These properties facilitate intimate tissue-material contact in diverse biomedical applications, enhancing tissue joining, drug transport, and signal transmission. Inspired by the universal adhesiveness of mussel foot proteins, 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (DOPA) and its analogs have been extensively exploited for the fabrication of adhesive hydrogels, within which the DOPA moieties can not only serve as cross-linking mediators but also participate in various intermolecular and surface interactions to mediate wet adhesion. This mini-review highlights recent achievements in the development of mussel-inspired adhesive hydrogels, focusing on: (1) elucidating DOPA-mediated adhesion mechanisms through nanomechanical characterizations, (2) designing injectable adhesive hydrogels toward applications in drug delivery, hemostasis, and wound closure, which includes in situ gelling liquids and shear-thinning preformed hydrogels, and (3) fabricating tough adhesive hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties for use in tissue regeneration, biosensing, and bioimaging, with typical examples of nanocomposite and double-network hydrogels. The challenges and prospects in this rapidly developing field are also discussed.image

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.