Russell Stewart and his colleagues are developing a polymer adhesive inspired by the glue produced by sandcastle worms to build their shelters. The adhesive aims to seal ruptures in the amniotic membranes that often occur during fetal surgery and fail to heal, increasing risk of preterm birth. The researchers synthesize oppositely charged polymers that combine to form a complex coacervate adhesive, which is applied and crosslinked on tissues. Initial tests suggest it may effectively seal blood vessels and membranes without cytotoxic effects. If successful, the worm-inspired glue could improve safety of in utero procedures and have other medical and industrial uses.

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Two sandcastle worms’ heads poke out of tubular shelters (white)
the worms build, while a third worm is temporarily tube-free.
Credit: Fred Hayes, University of Utah
Home > Volume 92 Issue 33 > Worm Glue Can Seal Tissues
Volume 92 Issue 33 | p. 8 | News of The Week
Issue Date: August 18, 2014 | Web Date: August 12, 2014
Worm Glue Can Seal Tissues
ACS Meeting News: Worm-inspired polymer adhesive could heal ruptures in amniotic membranes
By Stu Borman
Department: Science & Technology | Collection: Life Sciences
News Channels: Materials SCENE, Biological SCENE
Keywords: Meeting, sandcastle worm, fetal surgery, adhesion, glue
Sandcastle worms are pretty good chemists. Without advanced
degrees, they have figured out how to biosynthesize glue components
they use to build the underwater tubular shelters they call home.
Inspired by the worms, Russell J. Stewart of the University of Utah
and coworkers are now creating similar adhesives that might be used
to make in utero surgery safer or to block blood vessels that feed
tumors.
“It’s a classic example of borrowing successfully from nature,”
comments biomedical sealants specialist Jeffrey M. Karp of
Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston. “The Stewart group has taught
the world how sandcastle worms achieve underwater adhesion and is
now extending these discoveries to an approach that may find many
practical solutions in medicine.”
When doctors examine or perform surgery on developing fetuses, the
amniotic membranes that protect fetuses in the womb can rupture.
The membranes often fail to heal, so the procedures carry a
significant risk of preterm delivery.
Existing medical adhesives fall short in addressing this surgical predicament. Some adhesives swell too much when they cure,
which can cause damage to the delicate amniotic membranes. Others “are ineffective in the flexible, moist, and biochemically
active conditions of the human body or are acutely cyotoxic,” says Nick Aldred of Newcastle University, in England, who is an
expert on adhesives made by barnacles.
Stewart told a Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry session at this week’s American Chemical Society national meeting that
he hopes a sandcastle-worm-inspired adhesive his group is developing will provide an effective alternative for existing adhesives.
Sandcastle worms produce highly charged polyelectrolyte glue components in different types of cells and then combine oppositely
charged components enzymatically when constructing their shelters. Obtaining the glue directly from the worms or producing it
recombinantly hasn’t proved practical. So Stewart and coworkers instead synthesize oppositely charged polyelectrolytes and
combine them to form water-immiscible polymer solutions called complex coacervates. They then apply the coacervates to
biological tissues and cross link them enzymatically to cure them into adhesives that bond to the tissues. The patented technique
is in preclinical testing for use during fetal surgery.
The technique could also be useful for sealing blood vessels to cut off blood supply to tumors or for underwater industrial adhesive
applications. “The fluid adhesives adhere to blood vessel walls and solidify under flow,” Stewart says.
“Not only are the glues demonstrably effective, but they seem to cause little if any immune or cytotoxic response,” Aldred said. “In
my view, they have a lot of potential and, importantly, could be economical to produce.”
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Stewart and coworkers “have made astounding progress in quickly moving from understanding the key concepts of wet adhesion
by the sandcastle worm to the point where they are able to synthesize a polymer that mimics it,” said Anne Marie Power of the
National University of Ireland, who studies barnacle wet adhesion. “It could address a real surgical problem.”
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
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