Regarding synthetic self-healing materials, as healing reactions occur at the molecular level, bond formation occurs when healing chemicals are nanometer distances apart. However, motility of healing chemicals in materials is quite limited, permitting only passive diffusion, which reduces the chance of bond formation. By contrast, biological-tissues exhibit significant high-performance self-healing, and cadherin-mediated cell–cell adhesion is a key mechanism in the healing process. This is because cells are capable of a certain level of motility and actively migrate to damage sites, thereby achieving cell–cell adhesion with high efficacy. Here, we report biological-tissue-inspired, self-healing hydrogels in which azide-modified living cells are covalently cross-linked with alkyne-modified alginate polymers via bioorthogonal reactions. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate their unique self-healing capabilities originating from cadherin-mediated adhesion between cells incorporated into the gels as mobile healing mechanism. This study provides an example of self-healing material incorporating living components into a synthetic material to promote self-healing.

中文翻译：

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基于钙粘蛋白介导的特定细胞-细胞粘附的生物组织启发的活体自我修复水凝胶

关于合成自修复材料，由于修复反应发生在分子水平，当修复化学物质相距纳米距离时会形成键。然而，材料中愈合化学物质的运动性非常有限，仅允许被动扩散，从而降低了键形成的机会。相比之下，生物组织表现出显着的高性能自我修复，而钙粘蛋白介导的细胞-细胞粘附是愈合过程中的关键机制。这是因为细胞具有一定程度的运动能力并主动迁移到损伤部位，从而实现高效的细胞-细胞粘附。在这里，我们报告了受生物组织启发的自我修复水凝胶，其中叠氮化物修饰的活细胞通过生物正交反应与炔烃修饰的海藻酸盐聚合物共价交联。作为概念验证，我们展示了它们独特的自我修复能力，源于钙粘蛋白介导的细胞之间的粘附，并入凝胶中作为移动愈合机制。这项研究提供了一个自我修复材料的例子，该材料将生物成分结合到合成材料中以促进自我修复。