An Adhesive Hydrogel with "Load-Sharing" Effect as Tissue Bandages for Drug and Cell Delivery

Hydrogels with adhesive properties have potential for numerous biomedical applications. Here, the design of a novel, intrinsically adhesive hydrogel and its use in developing internal therapeutic bandages is reported. The design involves incorporation of "triple hydrogen bonding clusters" (THBCs) as side groups into the hydrogel matrix. The THBC through a unique "load sharing" effect and an increase in bond density results in strong adhesions of the hydrogel to a range of surfaces, including glass, plastic, wood, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE), stainless steel, and biological tissues, even without any chemical reaction. Using the adhesive hydrogel, tissue-adhesive bandages are developed for either targeted and sustained release of chemotherapeutic nanodrug for liver cancer treatment, or anchored delivery of pancreatic islets for a potential type 1 diabetes (T1D) cell replacement therapy. Stable adhesion of the bandage inside the body enables almost complete tumor suppression in an orthotopic liver cancer mouse model and ≈1 month diabetes correction in chemically induced diabetic mice.