Injectable and Biocompatible Mussel-Inspired Adhesive for Enhanced Reendothelialization of Injured Artery

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Abstract The drug delivery in vascular lesions is still challenging due to blood flow and complex dynamic physiological environment. Therefore, therapeutic bioadhesives are promising materials in replacement of drug eluting stents because of their unique features such as oriented delivering therapeutic agents, biodegradability, and avoidance of second injury. However, the adhesive strength of bioadhesives is seriously deteriorated in the moist environment of vessel surface. Herein, a rapid and simple method to prepare novel mussel‐inspired drug‐loaded bioadhesive through self‐assembly between lysine and 3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (DPA) functionalized poly(acrylic acid) is reported. The abundant DPA moieties endow adhesive strong underwater adhesion, which can reach the highest adhesion strength of 718 kPa. The adhesive shows 2.9‐fold and 14.7‐fold wet adhesion strength, more than that of the commercial cyanoacrylate and fibrin sealant. Such bioadhesive can serve as an efficient delivery vehicle for controlled‐release of drugs paclitaxel (PTX), which is successfully encapsulated in adhesive showing a durable (>200 h) sustained release. The capability on inhibition of neointima and enhancement of reendothelialization of injured artery are further confirmed in vivo. The novel therapeutic adhesive with injectability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility shows promising potential in the application in vessel therapy.