There have been numerous approaches to developing soft tissue adhesives that combine tissue compatibility, ease of use, good adhesive and cohesive strength, hemostasis and promotion of wound healing. These include completely synthetic approaches and approaches based on or utilizing natural compounds. Despite the significant amount of work, few systems have been found to possess the requisite combination of properties or have been approved for clinical use. Luna Innovations proposes to develop a novel surgical adhesive system from blends of two naturally occurring and abundant polymers. The novel adhesive will combine the adhesive properties, hemostatic activity, tissue compatibility and biodegradability of a polycationic polysaccharide with the mechanical strength and tissue compatibility of a protein and will be modified further to include reactive """"""""dangling"""""""" aldehyde groups. The adhesive properties of the blended adhesive system will be controllable by alteration of parameters such as composition, molecular weight, degree of crystallinity, crosslink density and density of free aldehyde groups. The proposed system will be prepared in a fully polymerized solid film version for the purpose of establishing feasibility. The film configuration will not be susceptible to inconsistent or improper mixing or flow often exhibited by multicomponent fluid systems that must be mixed immediately prior to use.
The specific aims of the proposed program are designed to provide an understanding of structure/property relationships in this new class of materials while simultaneously establishing feasibility for its use in biomedical applications.
