Bio-inspired poly-DL-serine materials resist the foreign-body response

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 5327 - 12
• Main Authors: Zhang, Donghui, Chen, Qi, Bi, Yufang, Zhang, Haodong, Chen, Minzhang, Wan, Jianglin, Shi, Chao, Zhang, Wenjing, Zhang, Junyu, Qiao, Zhongqian, Li, Jin, Chen, Shengfu, Liu, Runhui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.09.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 13/1; 13/51; 140/131; 140/146; 140/58; 147/135; 38/91; 639/301/54/989; 639/301/54/993; 64/60; Accessibility; Biocompatibility; Biomaterials; Biomedical materials; Biomimetics; Collagen; Cytokines; D-Serine; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogels; Immunogenicity; Implantation; Inflammation; Inflammatory response; L-Serine; multidisciplinary; Neurotransmitters; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silk; Surgical implants; Water chemistry
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25581-9

Implantation-caused foreign-body response (FBR) is a commonly encountered issue and can result in failure of implants. The high L-serine content in low immunogenic silk sericin, and the high D-serine content as a neurotransmitter together inspire us to prepare poly-DL-serine (PSer) materials in mitigating the FBR. Here we report highly water soluble, biocompatible and easily accessible PSer hydrogels that cause negligible inflammatory response after subcutaneous implantation in mice for 1 week and 2 weeks. No obvious collagen capsulation is found surrounding the PSer hydrogels after 4 weeks, 3 months and 7 months post implantation. Histological analysis on inflammatory cytokines and RNA-seq assay both indicate that PSer hydrogels show low FBR, comparable to the Mock group. The anti-FBR performance of PSer hydrogels at all time points surpass the poly(ethyleneglycol) hydrogels that is widely utilized as bio-inert materials, implying the potent and wide application of PSer materials in implantable biomaterials and biomedical devices. Implantation-caused foreign-body response is a commonly encountered issue and can result in failure of implants. Here, the authors demonstrate that a highly water soluble, biocompatible, and easily accessible poly-DL-serine hydrogel can mitigate foreign-body response.