AI Summary
The article discusses the development of a new method using a thin film of chitosan to bond different hydrogel polymers to each other. This breakthrough allows for various new applications such as protecting and cooling tissues, sealing vascular injuries, and preventing surgical adhesions. Hydrogels are currently used in clinical practice for drug delivery, lenses, bone cement, wound dressings, and tissue engineering.
Hydrogels are already used in clinical practice for the delivery of drugs, and as lenses, bone cement, wound dressings, 3D scaffolds in tissue engineering and other applications. However, bonding different hydrogel polymers to one another has remained a challenge; yet it could enable numerous new applications. Now, researchers have pioneered a new method that uses a thin film of chitosan, a fibrous sugar-based material derived from the processed outer skeletons of shellfish, to make different hydrogels instantaneously and strongly stick to each other. They used their approach to locally protect and cool tissues, seal vascular injuries, and prevent unwanted ‘surgical adhesions’ of internal body surfaces.