PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Uslu, Ece
AU  - Rana, Vijay Kumar
AU  - Anagnostopoulos, Sokratis
AU  - Karami, Peyman
AU  - Bergadano, Alessandra
AU  - Courbon, Cecile
AU  - Gorostidi, Francois
AU  - Sandu, Kishore
AU  - Stergiopulos, Nikolaos
AU  - Pioletti, Dominique P.
TI  - Wet Adhesive Hydrogels to Correct Malacic Trachea (Tracheomalacia): A Proof of Concept
AID  - 10.1101/2022.11.29.518329
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.11.29.518329
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/30/2022.11.29.518329.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/30/2022.11.29.518329.full
AB  - Tracheomalacia (TM) is a condition in which the anterior part of the trachea consisting of cartilage and/or the posterior part consisting muscle are too soft to ensure its mechanical support. This situation may result in an excessive and potentially lethal collapse of the airway in the newborns. Current treatment techniques include tracheal reconstruction, tracheoplasty, endo- and extraluminal stents, but are all facing important limitations.To reduce the shortcomings of actual TM treatments, this work proposes a new strategy by wrapping an adhesive hydrogel patch extraluminally around a malacic trachea. To validate this approach, first a numerical model revealed that a hydrogel patch with sufficient mechanical and adhesion strength can potentially preserve the trachea’s physiological shape. Accordingly, a new hydrogel formulation was synthesized employing the hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAam) and polyethylene glycol methacrylate (PEGDMA) as main polymer network and crosslinker, respectively. These hydrogels provide excellent adhesion on wet tracheal surfaces, thanks to a two-step photo-polymerization approach. Ex vivo experiments revealed that the developed adhesive hydrogel patches can restrain the collapsing of malacic trachea under applied negative pressure. This study, to be confirmed by in vivo studies, is open to the possibility of a new treatment in the difficult clinical situation of tracheomalacia in newborns.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.