A Bioinspired Defect-Tolerant Hydrogel Medical Patch for Abdominal Wall Defect Repair
Point-wise suturing is the standard method for ensuring that patches effectively perform mechanically supportive functions in tissue repair. However, stress concentrations around suture holes can compromise the mechanical stability of patches. In this study, we develop a suturable hydrogel patch with flaw-tolerance capabilities by leveraging multiscale stress deconcentration, inspired by natural silk. This design mitigates stress concentration across two scales through the synergistic integration of nanoscale high-energy crystalline domains and intermolecular interactions. The resulting integral hydrogel patch exhibits superior flaw resistance compared to conventional patches and effectively addresses tissue adhesion issues. To validate the efficacy of the patch, we demonstrate successful <i>in vivo</i> repair of abdominal wall defects in rats, comparing the performance of the proposed patch to commercial mesh patches (Prolene). The integral patch design strategy present here offers a valuable approach for developing patches that can be tailored to meet the mechanical support needs of various tissue repair applications.
Authors
- Mohan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4505-454X)
- Dong Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6257-0875)
- Wanfeng Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5528-0105)
- Xiaoning Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1662-5112)
- Yinshun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6810-2781)
- Ke Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4683-9325)
- Xiang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9096-6201)
- Jun Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3020-0148)
- Jingjing Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1823-0758)
- Ziming Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2833-3213)
- Zhao Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8246-9122)
- Weiping Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2611-0550)
- Pan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9974-8753)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Anhui Medical University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital (CN)
- Zhejiang Cancer Hospital (CN)
- Division of Materials Science and Engineering (AU)
- First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (CN)
- Institute for Advanced Study (DE)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Nano
- Published
- 2025-03-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c17122
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.39
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Anhui Medical University