Biomedical Hydrogel Bio-Adhesive Based on Lactobionic Acid Conjugated Polyethylenimine and Oxidized Dextran with Antioxidant Activity and Cytocompatibility
Aug 2026· Pharmaceutics· Vol 18, pp. 986· 1 citation· 54 references
Medicine
TL;DR
A facilely fabricated hydrogel bio-adhesive based on lactobionic acid-conjugated polyethylenimine and oxidized dextran via Schiff base linkages yields multifunctional hydrogel bio-adhesives, showing strong promise for wound care and tissue repair applications.
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Tissue bio-adhesives have gained significant attention as efficient alternatives to conventional wound closures, which are often hindered by insufficient adhesion and poor biocompatibility. Methods: Inspired by nature’s robust wet-adhesion strategies that use dynamic covalent interactions, we have reported a facilely fabricated hydrogel bio-adhesive based on lactobionic acid-conjugated polyethylenimine (LA-PEI) and oxidized dextran (ODex) via Schiff base linkages. Results: The prepared hydrogels exhibited three-dimensional interconnected porous networks, regulated swelling ratios, typical viscoelasticity, shear-thinning behavior, and self-healing ability. Notably, the swelling ratios of the hydrogels depended on composition, and OLP11 displayed the highest swelling ratio of over 1500%. The hydrogel bio-adhesives exhibited strong adhesion to various surfaces, including glass, metal, plastic, rubber, and wood, as well as to different chicken organs, including the heart, liver, spleen, and stomach. Furthermore, the hydrogels exhibited excellent ABTS radical-scavenging activity, effective intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, and good hemocompatibility, with hemolysis ratios of all hydrogels close to 0%, below the threshold of 5%. After culturing with NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, the hydrogels demonstrated good cytocompatibility and promoted cell proliferation, with cell viabilities on day 3 reaching over 90%. Conclusions: This design yields multifunctional hydrogel bio-adhesives, showing strong promise for wound care and tissue repair applications.
Hydrogel bio-adhesives have gained great attention in wound healing and tissue regeneration applications because conventional wound closures are often hindered by insufficient adhesion and poor biocompatibility. Considering that dynamic covalent interactions facilitate robust wet adhesion in hydrogels, we fabricated a Schiff base hydrogel bio-adhesive based on oxidized chondroitin sulfate (OCS) and polyethylenimine (PEI), and employed different degrees of OCS oxidation to regulate the physicochemical properties of the bio-adhesives. In this system, aldehyde groups of OCS react with amino groups of PEI to form covalent imine crosslinks, while physical hydrogen bonds also contribute as supplementary interactions. The fabricated hydrogel bio-adhesives demonstrated a three-dimensional interconnected microstructure and regulated equilibrium swelling ratios. The rheological tests also confirmed the typical viscoelasticity of the hydrogels and their shear-thinning behavior. The obtained hydrogel bio-adhesives demonstrated rapid and autonomous self-healing ability and strong adhesion to the surfaces of various matrices and wet organs, including wood, glass, metal, plastic, rubber, and heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and lung tissue. Furthermore, an ABTS radical scavenging assay confirmed their potent antioxidant activity. The hydrogels possessed effective antibacterial activities against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli. The hydrogels exhibited good hemocompatibility, effective intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activity, favorable cytocompatibility, and promoted cell proliferation. These results confirmed the fabricated hydrogels via Schiff base connections for biomedical applications and provided a facile design for biomedical hydrogel bio-adhesives.
Lei Nie, Meng-Qing He, Xiao-Ran Hu et al.· Polymers· 0 citations
Hemolysis assays and cytocompatibility evaluations confirmed the favorable hemocompatibility of the HTP hydrogels, which significantly promoted fibroblast proliferation and migration, indicating their substantial potential for wound healing applications.
Lei Nie, Xinran Li, Mengfei Feng et al.· International Journal of Bio...· 0 citations
Poly(lipoic acid) (PLA) often suffers from poor stability in physiological environments and limited adhesion, which restricts its practical use. To address these issues, a multicomponent adhesive hydrogel was constructed by integrating sodium lipoate (LANa) and tannic acid (TA) into the system. LANa helps adjust the hydrophilicity of the network, while TA, with abundant phenolic groups, establishes extensive hydrogen-bonding interactions with the polydisulfide chains. These combined effects effectively inhibit disulfide bond cleavage and enhance the overall stability of the material. At the same time, the disruption of crystalline domains leads to a more amorphous structure, giving the hydrogel improved transparency, self-healing behavior, and resistance to repeated deformation. With the introduction of catechol/pyrogallol groups from TA, the hydrogel shows strong adhesion under wet conditions (up to 289 kPa on porcine skin) and can bond to a wide range of substrates. It also demonstrates notable biofunctionality, including efficient ROS scavenging (∼92%), high antibacterial activity (>98%), and low hemolysis (0.77%). In addition, the stable ionic conductivity and mechanical flexibility enable its use as a strain sensor for monitoring human motion. Overall, this study provides a feasible strategy for enhancing the stability and functionality of PLA-based hydrogels, suggesting their applicability in biomedical adhesives and flexible electronic devices.
Mingyue Gao, Jiancheng Liu, Xiaoyang Li et al.· ACS Applied Bio Materials· 0 citations
The developed scaffold showed higher cell viability value than control groups than control groups, and confirmed cells proliferation potential of the scaffold at prolonged times, and future studies should explore in vivo performance and long-term functionality of the scaffold.
Ali Khalaji, Soheila Zare, Faranak Aghaz et al.· Scientific Reports· 0 citations
In recent years, hydrogels have emerged as viable candidates for soft conductors in wearable flexible electronics, due to their distinctive properties including high water content, excellent biocompatibility, and adjustable mechanical properties. However, the crystallization of H2O molecules within hydrogels at low temperatures leads to significant deterioration in their toughness and mechanical strength, severely restricting their practical applications in cold environments. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), rod-like nanomaterials with high crystallinity extracted from natural cellulose, have attracted increasing attention due to their outstanding mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and environmental friendliness. In this study, hyaluronic acid (HA) was adsorbed onto the surface of CNCs via hydrogen bonding, forming CNCs@HA nanomaterials. And then zwitterion proline (ZP) and CNCs@HA were incorporated into an acrylic acid-based hydrogel system, resulting in the formation of a novel freeze-resistant and self-healing nanocomposite hydrogel PAA-CNCs@HA-ZP-Fe3+ (PCHZF). The excellent properties of PCHZF can be attributed to the strong hydrogen bonding network formed among water molecules, CNCs@HA, and ZP molecules. These intermolecular interactions effectively inhibit the crystallization of water and maintain the integrity of the hydrogel matrix at low temperatures. Its compressive strength reaches 2.2 MPa, with a remarkable self-healing efficiency of 88.2%, and it can even achieve reliable sensing performance at extremely low temperatures.
Xiaohui Liu, Shaoning Shi, Jiarui Liu et al.· Colloids and Surfaces B: Bio...· 0 citations
Rheological characterization confirmed typical viscoelastic solid behavior, favorable injectability, and excellent self‐healing capability, the latter of which was also supported by macroscopic observations.
Lei Nie, Letian Yan, Yaling Deng et al.· Polymer Engineering & Sc...· 0 citations
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