Hydrogels, engineered materials that absorb and retain water, are used for a variety of medical treatments, including wound care. However, because the hydrogel adheres indiscriminately to all surfaces, there is a risk of it damaging delicate tissue during healing. Illustration image Pixabay
Scientists at McGill University have discovered that it may be possible to modify the hydrogel's surface organization to determine not only which surfaces the material will adhere (or not), but also the strength and speed of that adhesion.
This means that the adhesive hydrogel can be programmed to adhere strongly to healthy tissue but weakly to injured tissue, thereby preventing further injury.
“This discovery could allow surgical teams to take the time necessary to properly apply a hydrogel that adheres to desired regions and only those regions,” says postdoctoral researcher Zhen Yang from McGill University's Department of Mechanical Engineering and lead author of the Study article recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The next step is to explore how this discovery might prove useful in developing devices for sustained drug release from tissue surfaces.”
The article “Programming hydrogel adhesion with engineered polymer network topology” by Zhen Yanget coll. was published in the journal PNAS.