Design and Fabrication of Biodegradable Tissue Adhesive Using Albumin Nanoparticles and Polypyrrole as a Suture Substitute in Surgery and Trauma

Tissue adhesives are increasingly used instead of sutures or staples to close wounds in modern medicine. It seems that use of tissue adhesives can lead to faster and easier closure of the surgical wounds in comparison to sutures. Moreover, tissue glues have a wide application in the fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. Bio-glue which is a widely used bioadhesive in surgery contains bovine serum albumin and glutaraldehyde, but it has significant tissue toxicity due to the high percentage of glutaraldehyde. Adhesive biocompatibility may improve by using albumin nanoparticles along with less toxic cross-linkers such as polypyrrole.

  Albumin nanoparticles were prepared by coacervation method and then, polypyrrole and glutaraldehyde in different proportions were used to prepare the bioadhesive. The properties of nanoparticles were examined by DLS, zeta potential analysis, FT-IR spectrum, and scanning electron microscopy. The effects of pH and concentration of albumin nanoparticles on gelation time were analyzed and the cytotoxicity of the adhesive was investigated by the MTT technique.

  Among the prepared composites, the shortest gelation time was 20 seconds which belonged to the composite containing both crosslinking agents (pyrrole and glutaraldehyde 3%). The results of MTT assay showed that by reducing the percentage of glutaraldehyde, the toxicity of the adhesive significantly decreased (P <0.0001) compared to the toxicity of adhesive containing 10% glutaraldehyde.

Adhesive prepared by use of polypyrrole and 3% glutaraldehyde had a shorter gelation time and greater biocompatibility than the adhesive containing 10% glutaraldehyde. Therefore, it has the potential to replace other adhesives in the medical clinics.