Adhesive Nonfibrotic Human-Machine Interfaces for Bioelectronics, Drug Delivery and Cell Therapy

Implanted biomaterials and devices face compromised functionality and efficacy in the long term due to foreign body reactions and subsequent formation of fibrous capsules at the implant-tissue interfaces. Here, we demonstrate that an adhesive hydrogel interface can mitigate fibrous capsule formation in diverse animal models, including mice, rats, humanized mice, and porcine models, by minimizing the establishment of the inflammatory microenvironment and subsequent infiltration of inflammatory cells at the hydrogel interface. Histological analysis shows that the adhesive interface does not form observable fibrous capsules on diverse organs, including the abdominal wall, colon, stomach, lung, peripheral nerves, and heart, over 12 weeks in vivo. In vitro protein adsorption, multiplex Luminex assays, quantitative PCR, immunofluorescence analysis, and RNA sequencing are additionally performed to validate the hypothesis. This talk will focus on adhesive nonfibrotic interfaces’ applications in bioelectronics, drug delivery, and cell therapy.