The Outreach group POM committee is pleased to announce the ‘Paper of the Month’ for November 2016 is a study contributed to by Rhiannon Kuchel, Richard Tilley, and James Hook from EMU and NMR, in conjunction with:
Samuel J Frost, Damia Mawad, Michael J Higgins, Herleen Ruprai, Simon Myers and Antonio Lauto.
Gecko-inspired chitosan adhesive for tissue repair.
Published in: NPG Asia Materials. 2016, 8, e280
(impact factor 8.8)
This study demonstrates a one-step fabrication technique to produce a monolayer gecko-inspired adhesive that is biocompatible and bonds effectively to tissue.
Sutures/staples are currently standard tools for surgeons even if their use can have adverse effects including air and fluid leakage in procedures involving lungs, blood vessels, dura mater, and urethra.Gecko-inspired adhesives have the advantage of sealing wounds and repair tissue without these invasive devices. These adhesives can potentially provide stronger, faster and easier wound closure. Previously, a biocompatible and suture-less adhesive was developed for peripheral nerve repair; this adhesive is based on chitosan and is bonded photochemically to tissue. Currently we have succeeded in modifying the adhesive surface with nanopillars to further enhance the strength of tissue bonding.
To read more, follow this link:
http://www.nature.com/am/journal/v8/n6/full/am201673a.html
(a) 3-D image of the nanostructured adhesive on a 10 × 10 μm section; (b) the regular pattern of nanopillars is maintained at a larger scale with a small percentage of defects. The z-axis scale has been increased to highlight pillar defects.
