Polarity of hemidesmosome instructive light-curable biosealants guides nascent extracellular matrix for favorable...

Percutaneous medical devices - such as prosthetic limbs, dental implants, and subgingival dental restorations - commonly fail due to their susceptibility to infection, posing serious morbidity and mortality and a significant economic burden. Current solutions for subgingival dental restoration failure - such as antimicrobial and degradation-resistant materials - remain largely experimental and have yet to achieve widespread clinical translation. Thus, as a next-generation strategy for improving subgingival restoration longevity, we draw inspiration from the tooth, a long-lasting percutaneous organ with robust soft tissue attachment enabled by cell-matrix adhesive hemidesmosomes (HDs). Promoting HD formation around subgingival restorations - mimicking the natural attachment seen in teeth - may extend dental restoration lifespan by fostering a stable mucosal barrier that blocks bacterial access. A family of scalable biologics-free HD instructive light-curable biosealants (HILBs) was engineered for point-of-care coating for subgingival restorations to trigger and guide beneficial pericellular extracellular matrix structural changes at the HILB surface. Material-based strategies for medical device integration with the human body have traditionally focused on controlling surface properties to provoke desired cellular and tissue responses at the bio/non-bio interface. However, this approach overlooks the evolving pericellular matrix that quickly enrobes cells and overrides engineered surface cues. The control of cell-secreted nascent matrix through HILB surface polarity markedly upregulated HD formation. This bioinstruction is dependent on nascent glycoprotein laminin332 secretion and recognized by HD integrins, which demonstrates the potential of biomaterial surface design to guide secreted pericellular matrix with implications for facilitating tissue repair and enhancing subgingival restoration outcomes.