A mussel-inspired carboxymethyl cellulose hydrogel with enhanced adhesiveness through enzymatic crosslinking

In order to replace conventional sutures in wound closing applications, favorable hydrogels with strong wet tissue adhesion and biocompatibility have attracted considerable attention. Herein, inspired by mussel adhesive protein, a series of dopamine modified carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-DA) hydrogels were prepared in situ using enzymatic crosslinking in the presence of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and H2O2. The biomimetic CMC-DA hydrogel exhibited about 6-fold enhanced wet tissue adhesion strength (28.5 kPa) over the commercial fibrin glue. In addition, the gelation time, swelling ratio and rheological property of the hydrogel can be simply controlled by changing the concentrations of HRP, H2O2, and CMC-DA polymer. The gels also exhibited good biodegradation and biocompatibility in vitro. The overall results show that the CMC-DA hydrogel with enhanced wet adhesiveness will be a promising tissue adhesive material.