Evaluation of novel biodegradable three-armed- and hyper-branched tissue adhesives in a meniscus explant model

Current treatment methods to repair meniscal tears do not bring fully satisfactory results. Tissue adhesives are considered promising alternatives, since they are easy to apply and cause minimal tissue trauma. The first aim of this study was to analyze the adhesive properties of and tissue response to two recently developed biodegradable block copolymeric three-armed- and hyper-branched tissue adhesives. The second aim was to investigate if tissue surface modification with collagenase improves the attachment of the adhesives and increases the healing potential of the tissue. Cylindrical explants were harvested from bovine menisci. The central core of the explants was removed and glued back into the defect, with or without incubation in collagenase solution prior to gluing, using one of the novel glues, Dermabond® or fibrin glue. The repair constructs were cultured in vitro for 1 and 28 days. Adhesion tests and histology were performed to analyze the effects of the glue in combination with the additional treatment. The adhesive strength of the novel glues was 40-50 kPa, which was significantly higher than that of fibrin glue (15 kPa). Cells were present in direct contact with the glues, and the tissue remained vital during the whole culture period. Increased cellularity around the tear in the collagenase treated explants was observed after 1 day. The two newly developed tissue adhesives are attractive materials to be used for repair of meniscal tears. The beneficial influence of collagenase treatment in treating meniscal tears with glues still needs to be confirmed in more clinical relevant studies. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 1405-1411, 2017.