A New Type of Biological Glue Derived from Fish Swim Bladder: Outstanding Adhesion and Surgical Applications

Mechanical strong adhesives have been widely explored in many technical fields. Therefore, a great deal of efforts has been devoted to the widespread investigation of synthetic adhesives and bioadhesives. Nevertheless, it is a crucial challenge to produce economical and practical protein-based adhesives with robust adhesion properties for biomedical applications. In this study, the fish swim bladder as raw materials to produce robust adhesives by simple heating-cooling treatment is utilized. The resulting fish swim bladder glue (FSG) reveals excellent lap shear strength on various hard substrates, especially wood and glass, exceeding many commercial available adhesives and artificial protein-based adhesives. In addition, FSG also has low cytotoxicity and minimal inflammatory response, which exhibits considerable adhesion on soft tissues. Notably, the biocompatibility and biodegradability together with robust adhesion performance endow FSG the capacity in accelerating the wound healing and skin regeneration. Overall, these studies provide insight into the protein-based adhesives from natural resources.