Performance of Water-immiscible Silk Fibroin Based Hydrogel as Underwater Biomedical Adhesive

Abstract

The shortcomings of the conventional wound closures like poor wet adhesion strength cause a hydration-persuaded softening, dissolution and viscosity of the adhesives. This happens especially due to the changes in viscosity of the adhesive during underwater surgical operations, which drive the research attention on artificial biomedical adhesives. The inspiration obtained from the natural protein-based adhesives of marine organisms, we develop a water-immiscible silk protein fibroin based bioadhesive with the assistance of polyethyleneglycol. The viscosity of the fibroin based bioadhesive can be modified to meet the application requirement. We adjust the reaction factors like varying the raw materials ratios, pH and gelation time. The fabricated bioadhesive exhibits a high dry adhesive strength of about 120 kPa and an enhanced wet adhesive toughness of about 150 kPa. The adhesive mechanism of the material is also proposed. This simplistic green method makes the way for obtaining fibroin based bioadhesive as and when needed. The findings promise the potentiality of the silk fibroin-based biomedical adhesive in future clinical applications.