A Chitosan-Containing Dual-Crosslinked Resilient Patch for Tissue Adhesive and Sealant

Adhesive patches are optimum candidates for distinct biomedical applications, including tissue adhesion and leakage sealing in outpatient or surgical procedures. Unfortunately, most adhesive patches are significantly less effective at providing strong adhesion to the surface of wet tissue, which increases the risk and reduces the fault tolerance in surgery. Meanwhile, customization is difficult to achieve in terms of mechanical adaptability. To tackle this problem, we developed a chitosan-containing bioadhesive patch (ANC) comprising dual-crosslinked carboxymethyl chitosan methacrylate (CMCS-MA), acrylic acid, and acrylic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester. This ingenious and convenient design strategy facilitates the integrated polymerization of the patch, while circumventing the necessity for additional crosslinkers. ANC patches in dry state and the rich carboxyl groups contained therein enable rapid removal of moisture from tissue surfaces. Subsequently, robust adhesion based on hydrogen bonding and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-amine interaction is formed. The dual-crosslinked ANC patch achieves good adjustable mechanical performance and swelling behavior by controlling the addition of CMCS-MA. Furthermore, compared with commercially available fibrin glue, ANC patches own robust adhesion and superior sealing performance for stomach fluid leakage. This intricately designed ANC patch sheds new light on biomedical patch design and broadens the scope of chitosan-containing materials in tissue adhesive and sealant applications.