# Multi-Functional Self-Adhesive Porous Patches with Anisotropic Charges for Abdominal Wall Repair

## TL;DR

A new self-adhesive patch with special properties helps improve abdominal wall repair by preventing adhesion and infection.

## Contribution

A novel self-adhesive porous patch with anisotropic charges is developed for enhanced abdominal wall repair.

## Key findings

- The patch's bottom side prevents adhesion to surrounding organs.
- The top side promotes wet self-adhesion and neutralizes harmful cytokines.
- The patch outperforms commercial options in preventing postoperative adhesion and infection.

## Abstract

Biomedical patches have garnered extensive value in abdominal wall repair. Major challenge still remains in the improvement of structure, function, and their active ingredients for realizing long-lasting and effective therapeutic outcomes. Herein, we develop a self-adhesive porous patch with anisotropic charges via a simple integrally molding method. The bottom side of the patch with the dense structure exhibits anti-adhesion behavior that acts as a protective barrier for surrounding organs and tissues. Comparatively, owing to the loose porous structure with gradient arrangement, the top side of the patch enables the removal of interfacial water on the tissue surface, facilitating to achieve unique wet self-adhesive properties. Notably, benefitting from the enrichment of negatively charged carboxyl (-COOH) functional groups on the top side of the patch, positively charged pro-inflammatory cytokines can be adsorbed and neutralized on the wound surface, thereby improving the adverse microenvironment. In vivo animal experiments have demonstrated that compared to the commercial patches, the designed patch has the ability to prevent postoperative adhesion and infection, greatly improving abdominal wall repair. These results offer substantial guidance for promoting the clinical translation of abdominal wall defect treatment.