Adhesive Hydrogel Technologies for Biomedical Applications

Adhesive hydrogels represent a rapidly advancing class of biomaterials that combine the water-rich, tissue-like properties of conventional hydrogels with strong interfacial bonding to biological surfaces. Through strategies such as dynamic covalent crosslinking, supramolecular interactions and phase-separated coacervation, these materials achieve rapid wet adhesion, mechanical resilience and tunable degradability. They serve a spectrum of clinical needs from haemostatic sealants for arterial and cardiac wounds to leak-detecting patches for gastrointestinal surgery and adhesive scaffolds for cartilage or soft-tissue repair. Multifunctional designs increasingly integrate antibacterial agents, growth factors and self-healing capacity to support accelerated wound closure and tissue regeneration. Recent efforts have also yielded stimuli-responsive and backbone-degradable adhesives that allow precise in situ setting and environmentally friendly breakdown. As surgical practice and emergency medicine demand ever more reliable and user-friendly sealants, adhesive hydrogels are poised to transform haemorrhage control, postoperative care and organ repair worldwide.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have harnessed biomacromolecular design and advanced polymer chemistry to enhance adhesion, functionality and degradability of hydrogel adhesives. One approach employs methacrylated silk fibroin crosslinked with phenylboronic acid-ionic liquid and loaded with transforming growth factor-β1. This composite achieves robust wet adhesion, reactive-oxygen-species scavenging and sustained growth-factor release, enabling seamless meniscal repair and inner tissue regeneration in vivo. Another development utilises in situ radical ring-opening polymerisation of cyclic ketene acetals and acrylate monomers to create a deep covalently interpenetrating network. The resulting adhesives exhibit strong bonding to wet bone and skin, tunable mechanical modulus, finely adjustable setting times and predictable degradability. A third innovation involves bioinspired microstructured xerogels infused with functional liquids that swiftly absorb interfacial fluids, promote clot formation and establish tough adhesion under high-pressure haemorrhagic conditions, while offering on-demand removal and long-term storage stability.

Adhesive Hydrogel Technologies for Biomedical Applications publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in adhesive hydrogel technologies for biomedical applications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Hydrogel: A three-dimensional network of hydrophilic polymers capable of absorbing and retaining substantial amounts of water while maintaining structural integrity.

Self-healing: The capacity of a material to autonomously restore its network after damage via reversible bonds or dynamic crosslinks.

Coacervate: A liquid-liquid phase-separated system rich in polymers, formed by associative interactions that enhance adhesion in wet environments.

Supramolecular interactions: Non-covalent bonds such as hydrogen bonds, ionic interactions and π–π stacking that enable reversible adhesion and network adaptability.

Radical ring-opening polymerisation: A polymerisation mechanism that incorporates cyclic monomers into the backbone, facilitating in situ formation of degradable and interpenetrating network structures.

References

1. Adhesive cryogel particles for bridging confined and irregular tissue defects. Military Medical Research (2023).
2. Silk fibroin hydrogel adhesive enables sealed-tight reconstruction of meniscus tears. Nature Communications (2024).
3. Bioinspired Polyacrylic Acid‐Based Dressing: Wet Adhesive, Self‐Healing, and Multi‐Biofunctional Coacervate Hydrogel Accelerates Wound Healing. Advanced Science (2023).
4. Liquid-infused microstructured bioadhesives halt non-compressible hemorrhage. Nature Communications (2022).
5. An Adhesive/Anti‐Adhesive Janus Tissue Patch for Efficient Closure of Bleeding Tissue with Inhibited Postoperative Adhesion. Advanced Science (2023).
6. Modular stimuli-responsive hydrogel sealants for early gastrointestinal leak detection and containment. Nature Communications (2022).
7. Tunable backbone-degradable robust tissue adhesives via in situ radical ring-opening polymerization. Nature Communications (2023).