2. Academic Validation
  3. A sticky carbohydrate meets a mussel adhesive: Catechol-conjugated levan for hemostatic and wound healing applications

A sticky carbohydrate meets a mussel adhesive: Catechol-conjugated levan for hemostatic and wound healing applications

  • Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Jan 1:299:120172. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.120172.
Asila Osman 1,  Enhui Lin 2,  Dong Soo Hwang 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea; Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Khartoum, Khartoum 11115, Sudan.
  • 2 Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea.
  • 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea; Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea; Institute for Convergence Research and Education in Advanced Technology, Yonsei University International Campus I-CREATE, Incheon 21983, South Korea. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 36876787 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.120172
Abstract

The stickiest natural polysaccharide, levan, plays a role in metalloproteinase activation, which is an important step involved in the healing of injured tissue. However, levan is easily diluted, washed away, and loses adhesion in wet environments, which limits its biomedical applications. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy for fabricating a levan-based adhesive hydrogel for hemostatic and wound healing applications by conjugating catechol to levan. Prepared hydrogels exhibit significantly improved water solubilities, and adhesion strengths to hydrated porcine skin of up to 42.17 ± 0.24 kPa which is more than three-times that of fibrin glue adhesive. The hydrogels also promote rapid blood clotting and significantly faster healing of rat-skin incisions compared to nontreated samples. In addition, levan-catechol exhibited an immune response close to that of the negative control, which is ascribable to its significantly lower endotoxin level compared to native levan. Overall, levan-catechol hydrogels are promising Materials for hemostatic and wound healing applications.

Keywords

Bioadhesive; Catechol; Hemostatic; Levan; Wound healing.

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