Treatment of wounds in special areas is challenging due to inevitable movements and difficult fixation. Common cotton gauze suffers from incomplete joint surface coverage, confinement of joint movement, lack of antibacterial function, and frequent replacements. Hydrogels have been considered as good candidates for wound dressing because of their good flexibility and biocompatibility. Nevertheless, the adhesive, mechanical, and antibacterial properties of conventional hydrogels are not satisfactory. Herein, cationic polyelectrolyte brushes grafted from bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers are introduced into polydopamine/polyacrylamide hydrogels. The 1D polymer brushes have rigid BC backbones to enhance mechanical property of hydrogels, realizing high tensile strength (21–51 kPa), large tensile strain (899–1047%), and ideal compressive property. Positively charged quaternary ammonium groups of tethered polymer brushes provide long‐lasting antibacterial property to hydrogels and promote crawling and proliferation of negatively charged epidermis cells. Moreover, the hydrogels are rich in catechol groups and capable of adhering to various surfaces, meeting adhesive demand of large movement for special areas. With the above merits, the hydrogels demonstrate less inflammatory response and faster healing speed for in vivo wound healing on rats. Therefore, the multifunctional hydrogels show stable covering, little displacement, long‐lasting antibacteria, and fast wound healing, demonstrating promise in wound dressing.

MXenes are very promising emerging materials for diverse applications because of their outstanding properties. However, the effect of MXene on cell growth and differentiation had barely been studied. Here, we fabricated titanium carbide (Ti3C2) MXene composite nanofibers as smart biomaterials for cell culture and tissue engineering. The composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning and doping and displayed excellent hydrophilicity because of a large number of introduced functional hydrophilic groups. The nanosurface and functional groups of MXene composite nanofibers provide a good microenvironment for cellular growth. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were applied to assess their biochemical properties. The cell test outcome demonstrated that the obtained MXene composite nanofibers had good biocompatibility and greatly improved cellular activity. These composite nanofibers enhanced BMSC’s differentiation to osteoblasts. The excellent biocompatibility combined with the nanoeffect of MXene suggested that this novel class of biomaterials has the potential to bridge the translational gap in materials sciences and stem cell-based tissue therapies and future multitask biomedical therapies based on MXene’s unique advantages.

Background and Aims Stool DNA testing is an emerging and attractive option for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We previously evaluated the feasibility of a stool DNA (sDNA) test of methylated SDC2 for CRC detection. The aim of this study was to assess its performance in a multicenter clinical trial setting. Methods Each participant was required to undergo a sDNA test and a reference colonoscopy. The sDNA test consists of quantitative assessment of methylation status of SDC2 promoter. Results of real-time quantitative methylation-specific PCR were dichotomized as positive and negative, and the main evaluation indexes were sensitivity, specificity, and kappa value. All sDNA tests were performed and analyzed independently of colonoscopy. Results Among the 1110 participants from three clinical sites analyzed, 359 and 38 were diagnosed, respectively, with CRC and advanced adenomas by colonoscopy. The sensitivity of the sDNA test was 301/359 (83.8%) for CRC, 16/38 (42.1%) for advanced adenomas, and 134/154 (87.0%) for early stage CRC (stage I–II). Detection rate did not vary significantly according to age, tumor location, differentiation, and TNM stage, except for gender. The follow-up testing of 40 postoperative patients with CRC returned negative results as their tumors had been surgically removed. The specificity of the sDNA test was 699/713 (98.0%), and unrelated cancers and diseases did not seem to interfere with the testing. The kappa value was 0.84, implying an excellent diagnostic consistency between the sDNA test and colonoscopy. Conclusion Noninvasive sDNA test using methylated SDC2 as the exclusive biomarker is a clinically viable and accurate CRC detection method. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Chi-CTR-TRC-1900026409, retrospectively registered on October 8, 2019; http://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=43888&htm=4.

layers has attracted remarkable attention in recent years for surgical challenge and undesirable treatment outcomes. The destruction of the muscular layer is difficult to be sutured and injury of the serosal membrane could induce obvious viscera adhesion. [5,6] In the past few decades, tension-free repair operation is recommended as the standard treatment for soft-tissue defects like abdominal wall defects, in which different types of patches have been widely used. [1,[7][8][9] Traditional synthetic meshes with high strength, light weight, and anti-deformation (e.g., polypropylene (PP) and polyester meshes) have been widely used for tension-free repair of soft-tissue defects. But these meshes could result in severe visceral adhesion and undesirable wound healing, because of an obvious foreign body reaction (Figure 1a). [10][11][12] One of the most common approaches to solve the problem of visceral adhesion is to develop composite patches with anti-adhesion barriers. [9,13] For example, Parietex composite (PCO) mesh has been successfully designed to prevent visceral adhesion by coating an anti-adhesive collagen-based barrier on polyester mesh. [14,15] Nevertheless, these polyester or PP-based composite meshes could cause undesirable wound healing, due to their inherent unsatisfied inflammation response and lack of suitable microstructure for cells to migrate and grow. [16,17] Moreover, the collagen-based barrier would swell and cause deformation of composite meshes in an abdominal wet environment [18] (Figure 1b). Currently, the Implantable meshes used in tension-free repair operations facilitate treatment of internal soft-tissue defects. However, clinical meshes fail to achieve anti-deformation, anti-adhesion, and pro-healing properties simultaneously, leading to undesirable surgery outcomes. Herein, inspired by the peritoneum, a novel biocompatible Janus porous poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel (JPVA hydrogel) is developed to achieve efficient repair of internal soft-tissue defects by a facile yet efficient strategy based on top-down solvent exchange. The densely porous and smooth bottom-surface of JPVA hydrogel minimizes adhesion of fibroblasts and does not trigger any visceral adhesion, and its loose extracellular-matrix-like porous and rough top-surface can significantly improve fibroblast adhesion and tissue growth, leading to superior abdominal wall defect treatment to commercially available PP and PCO meshes. With unique anti-swelling property (maximum swelling ratio: 6.4%), JPVA hydrogel has long-lasting anti-deformation performance and maintains high mechanical strength after immersion in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 14 days, enabling tolerance to the maximum abdominal pressure in an internal wet environment. By integrating visceral anti-adhesion and defect pro-healing with anti-deformation, the JPVA hydrogel patch shows great prospects for efficient internal soft-tissue defect repair.

Medical patches play an important role in wound healing because of their tissue conformality, drug release capacity, and convenient operation. Great efforts have been devoted to developing new-generation patches with distinctive features promoting wound healing. Here, inspired by the structure of octopus suction cups and the component of natural tissue, a biocompatible wound patch with selective adhesiveness and individualized design using a combined strategy of template-replication and mask-guided lithography is presented. Such patches are based on Ecoflex film with suction-cup-mimicking microstructures to adhere to normal skin and with biocompatible gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel to contact wounded areas. An ultraviolet mask with a tailorable pattern is employed to shape the GelMA hydrogel into customized geometry replicating individual wound areas, and thus both adhesion and antiadhesion properties are integrated into the same patch. In addition, vascular endothelial growth factor is loaded to accelerate the healing process. Based on these advantages, the authors demonstrate that the present patches not only adhere to different skin surfaces, but also promote the treatment of a rat cutaneous wound model. Thus, it is believed that this versatile patch can break through the limitation of traditional patches and be ideal candidates for wound healing and related biomedical applications.