A highly elastic tissue sealant based on photopolymerised gelatin.
Gelatin is widely used as a medical biomaterial because it is readily available, cheap, biodegradable and demonstrates favourable biocompatibility. Many applications require stabilisation of the biomaterial by chemical crosslinking, and this often involves derivatisation of the protein or treatment with cytotoxic crosslinking agents. We have previously shown that a facile photochemical method, using blue light, a ruthenium catalyst and a persulphate oxidant, produces covalent di-tyrosine crosslinks in resilin and fibrinogen to form stable hydrogel biomaterials. Here we show that various gelatins can also be rapidly crosslinked to form highly elastic (extension to break >650%) and adhesive (stress at break >100 kPa) biomaterials. Although the method does not require derivatisation of the protein, we show that when the phenolic (tyrosine-like) content of gelatin is increased, the crosslinked material becomes resistant to swelling, yet retains considerable elasticity and high adhesive strength. The reagents are not cytotoxic at the concentration used in the photopolymerisation reaction. When tested in vivo in sheep lung, the photopolymerised gelatin effectively sealed a wound in lung tissue from blood and air leakage, was not cytotoxic and did not produce an inflammatory response. The elastic properties, thermal stability, speed of curing and high tissue adhesive strength of this photopolymerised gelatin, offer considerable improvement over current surgical tissue sealants.
Elvin
Christopher M
CM
CSIRO Livestock Industries, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia. chris.elvin@csiro.au
Vuocolo
Tony
T
Brownlee
Alan G
AG
Sando
Lillian
L
Huson
Mickey G
MG
Liyou
Nancy E
NE
Stockwell
Peter R
PR
Lyons
Russell E
RE
Kim
Misook
M
Edwards
Glenn A
GA
Johnson
Graham
G
McFarland
Gail A
GA
Ramshaw
John A M
JA
Werkmeister
Jerome A
JA
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D004548:Elasticity; D005399:Fishes; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008168:Lung / Q000601:surgery / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D058105:Polymerization; D012756:Sheep; D013552:Swine; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014014:Tissue Adhesives / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D014014:Tissue Adhesives; D005780:Gelatin