Tissue-Adhesive Hydrogel Biointerfaces for Sutureless Implantable Electronics

Soft and stretchable bioelectronics have been attractive due to mechanical modulus matching to biological tissues. Nevertheless, there still have remained challenges to optimize biotic-abiotic interfaces for long-term and reliable bidirectional electrical stimulation and signal recording. Herein, we propose a hydrogel biointerface with wet-resistant tissue adhesiveness – which is inspired by mussel byssal threads, enabling immediate fixation of implantable electronics on nerve and cardiac tissues without any sutures. Firstly, adhesive and strain-gradient artificial epineurium is presented for efficient nerve-to-nerve connection and regeneration, implementing further stable neural interfacing. Secondly, a strain-adaptive fiber-interlocked bioelectronic patch is introduced for efficient cardiac interfacing even in freely moving animals. Such patch-type devices containing tissue adhesive hydrogel interfaces would be promising for developing sutureless bioelectronics.