Hyeseon Lee1 Ajeesh Chandrasekharan1 Keum-Yong Seong1 Yeon Ji Jo2 Samdae Park3 Seonyeong An1 Seungsoo Lee3 Hyeji Kim4,5 Hyungju Ahn5 Sungbaek Seo1 Jong Soo Lee2 Seung Yun Yang1
1Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 Four Program), Life and Industry Convergence Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang, Republic ofKorea 2Department of Ophthalmology, Pusan National University College of Medicine and Medical Research Institute of Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Republic of Korea 3SNvia Co., Ltd., Hyowon Industry-Cooperation Building., Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea 4Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea 5Industrial Technology Convergence Center, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, POSTECH, Pohang, Republic of Korea
Correspondence Jong Soo Lee, Seung Yun Yang
Hyeseon Lee and Ajeesh Chandrasekharan contributed equally to the work.
Abstract
Achieving fast and secure wound closure without ocular foreign body sensation is highly desired in ophthalmologic surgery. Sutureless approaches using tissue adhesives are gaining popularity, but their practical use is limited by the difficulty in controlling adhesion time and satisfying safety standards without compromising adhesive performance. Herein, we report user-demand hydrogel-forming ocular glues based on multilength photo-crosslinkable hyaluronic acid (HA), achieving firm tissue adhesion under wet and dynamic conditions and possessing cornea-like optical transparency. The HA-based photocurable glue (HA photoglue) quickly seals wounds upon nontoxic low-energy light exposure (320–500 nm, < 5 s, < 1 J cm−2), and its mechanical and adhesive properties are improved by introducing short and long crosslinkable moieties into HA through one-step synthesis, forming multilength networks. Furthermore, the HA photoglue provides stable sealing in wet environments like ocular mucous surface, a clear vision with a light transmittance of more than 95% over the entire visible range, and a lubricating surface with minimal ocular sensation (generating less than 10% frictional force than suture groups). In a rabbit corneal incision model, the HA photoglue showed improved wound healing efficacy based on histological evaluation compared to control groups.