With the help of the blue sea mussel, scientists in South Korea have developed an injectable gel that could be used to fill wrinkles. 

Hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels are often used as biocompatible materials for drug delivery and tissue engineering, but they have poor mechanical strength and undergo rapid degradation in vivo because they absorb water and undergo enzymatic degradation. By adding an amino acid found in mussels, a more stable and adehesive hydrogel has been made by Tae Gwan Park and colleagues from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon. 

Park used the amino acid, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, that is abundant in the mussel's adhesive pad enabling it to cling tightly to various organic and inorganic surfaces. The amino acid makes the gel stick to the tissue, explains Park, which makes it useful for tissue engineering, drug delivery and even to fill wrinkles. The liquid hydrogel is injected into the body where it immediately turns to gel due to the change in temperature. 'The gel formation in the body can serve as a temporal depot for sustained drug release, tissue formation or can act as a tissue glue,' says Park. 

Zhiyuan Zhong of Soochow University, Suzhou, China, who researches injectable hydrogels and biodegradable polymers, is impressed by Park's findings. 'These hydrogels have elegantly combined injectability, in vivo stability, biodegradability, good mechanical properties, thermo-sensitivity and excellent tissue adhesive properties.' He adds that 'these injectable, yet highly sophisticated hydrogels are based on well accepted materials and are easy to prepare.' 

Park says his team now plan to use this injectable adhesive hydrogel for clinical applications by encapsulating therapeutic drugs or stem cells within them and are also working on in vivo experiments. 

Philippa Ross 

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