Arrowhead Composite Microneedle Patches with Anisotropic Surface Adhesion for Preventing Intrauterine Adhesions

Abstract

Biomedical patches are considered as a promising strategy to help tissue repair and regeneration, prevent tissue adhesion, and reduce neighboring friction. Here, novel arrowhead composite microneedle patches (MNPs) are presented with anisotropic surface adhesion and growth factor encapsulation using a heterogeneous template replication approach for endometrium repair and intrauterine adhesions (IUAs) prevention. The arrowhead structures bring about interlocking between the microneedle (MN) tips and tissues, allowing these MNPs to steadily adhere to the tissues. Besides, benefitting from the cytoadhesive needle-tip material and the antiadhesive base material, these MNPs possess anisotropic surface adhesion and can facilitate cell adhesion on one surface to repair damaged tissues while restrain tissue contact on the other to prevent adverse adhesion. In the meanwhile, the encapsulated growth factor can be delivered through the MNs to the deep tissue, further accelerating tissue repair. Additionally, as the bases are soft and their patterns are highly tunable, the MNPs can change their shapes flexibly to adjust to the irregular morphology of uteri. It is demonstrated that these MNPs show good performances in treating injured endometrium and preventing IUAs of a rat model, indicating their great potential in versatile postoperative adhesion prevention and other clinical applications.