Mucus-inspired hydrogels with protonation-driven adhesion for extreme acidic conditions
<h2>Summary</h2> Despite their biomedical promise due to biocompatibility and flexibility, conventional hydrogels exhibit limited adhesion and structural stability under highly acidic conditions (pH ≈ 2) due to acid-induced network degradation. Inspired by the protective properties of gastric mucus, we developed an ultrastable mucus-inspired hydrogel (UMIH) for extreme acidic environments. The UMIH achieves remarkable wet adhesion strength (64.7 kPa at pH 2), surpassing aluminum phosphate gels by 15-fold, and maintains structural integrity for over 7 days. Its design incorporates high-isoelectric-point (HIP) proteins for protonation-driven electrostatic interactions, tannic acid for hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions, and hexamethylene diisocyanate as a covalent crosslinker. Additional physical crosslinking between HIP and tannic acid further enhances robustness. <i>In vivo</i> porcine esophageal injury models confirmed the UMIH's exceptional performance in adhesion, epithelial remodeling, and accelerated tissue repair. These findings establish the UMIH as a transformative platform for biomedical applications requiring durable adhesion and structural ability in challenging physiological environments.
Authors
- José Carlos Rodríguez‐Cabello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3438-858X)
- Kannie W. Y. Chan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7315-1550)
- Jiaying Mo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1358-2903)
- Qisi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-3404)
- Zhiyu Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8847-6868)
- Wanghuai Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0936-3871)
- Zuankai Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3510-1122)
- Longlong Si (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0504-1659)
- Yuan‐Ting Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4150-5470)
- Xiao Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0850-7813)
- Yihai Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1308-0065)
- Yanqiang Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7740-6696)
- Liming Bian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4739-0918)
- Xin Jiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0906-0769)
- Ying Chau
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2152-0892)
- Feng Lou
- Zhinan Yang
- Bei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5416-2883)
- Huanxi Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9546-9263)
Institutions
- Universidad de Valladolid (ES)
- Department of Health (CN)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- West China Hospital of Sichuan University (CN)
- Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital (CN)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CN)
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell Reports Physical Science
- Published
- 2025-09-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2025.102772
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Polymer Surface Interaction Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.66
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Innovation and Technology Commission
- Sichuan University
- South China University of Technology
- Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province
- West China Hospital, Sichuan University