title: A highly elastic tissue sealant based on photopolymerised gelatin.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Livestock Industries, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia. chris.elvin@csiro.au
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Elvin
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vuocolo
authors.forename: Alan G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Brownlee
authors.forename: Lillian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sando
authors.forename: Mickey G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Huson
authors.forename: Nancy E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Liyou
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Stockwell
authors.forename: Russell E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Misook
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Glenn A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Gail A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: McFarland
authors.forename: John A M
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ramshaw
authors.forename: Jerome A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Werkmeister
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D014014:Tissue Adhesives; D005780:Gelatin