Proceedings of 7ᵗʰ Meeting on Self Assembly Structures In Solution and at Interfaces

Biomimicry is known by the ability to innovate through inspiration in natural elements to solve current problems. The capability of biological adhesion is a relevant natural phenomenon used as a strategy for the profitable and sustainable development of new biomaterials. In this research, our focus is to investigate the potential of hydrogels as tissue stickers for cutaneous injury treatment. The challenge in this field is to congregate biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogels with appropriate adhesion in wet tissues. To this, the adhesive proteins excreted by marine blue mussel’s foot Mytilus edulis inspired our material. Although, the mechanisms of this bio adhesion are not completely understood due to the complexity of the protein matrix, which contains a high content of collagen and L-3,4 dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). So, it is believed that the catechol group from DOPA is one of the responsible for adhesion capacity and chemical crosslink through Michael’s addition reaction with amino groups.1 In this sense, we developed biomimetic hydrogels using the rutin and tannic acid polyphenols to substitute the catechol groups of DOPA, and bovine gelatin on oxidizing and basic medium to synthesize the hydrogels.2 The crosslinking reaction efficiency was demonstrated through the ninhydrin method. Furthermore, infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated modifications in secondary structure of the protein due to changes in the bands related to amide I e II. Mechanical tests to hydrogel adhesion potential were performed with porcine skin after the curing process.3 The results showed an effective synthesis of the bioinspired adhesive hydrogel.