Tough, self-healable and tissue-adhesive hydrogel with tunable multifunctionality

An ideal hydrogel for biomedical engineering should mimic the intrinsic properties of natural tissue, especially high toughness and self-healing ability, in order to withstand cyclic loading and repair skin and muscle damage. In addition, excellent cell affinity and tissue adhesiveness enable integration with the surrounding tissue after implantation. Inspired by the natural mussel adhesive mechanism, we designed a polydopamine–polyacrylamide (PDA–PAM) single network hydrogel by preventing the overoxidation of dopamine to maintain enough free catechol groups in the hydrogel. Therefore, the hydrogel possesses super stretchability, high toughness, stimuli-free self-healing ability, cell affinity and tissue…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 863 Program, 2015AA034202
• SJ
  Southwest Jiaotong University
• MO
  Ministry of Education, India
• SU
  South University of Science and Technology of China
• UO
  University of Science and Technology of China
• SP
  Sichuan Province Youth Science and Technology Innovation Team

  Award: 2016TD0026
• NH
  National High-tech Research and Development Program

  Award: 2015AA034202
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2016YFB0700802
• FR
  Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

  Award: 2682016CX075