New materials for laser welding of connective tissue and controlled release of antimicrobial principles

Stitches or adhesive patches still represent the gold standard for the closure of wounds. However, inspite of their long history and widespread implementation, these solutions remain problematic in different respects, due to the combination of factors that complicate the healing process, such as foreign body reactions, antimicrobial infections, or the permeability of the repair. Our work consists of the pursuit of an alternative technological platform to seal wounds in different clinical contexts, by the use of laser welding in combination with biocompatible scaffolds made of electrospun fibers containing polysaccharidic components and hosting a variety of dyes, such as FDA-approved indocyanine green or more durable plasmonic nanoparticles. We illustrate the use of these materials in different regimes of optical irradiation, where cw light activates a cascade of photo-thermal and biochemical processes that result into a strong adhesion at the boundary with a connective tissue. We suggest the incorporation of multishell Au@Ag core@shell nanoparticles as a tool serving both as a photothermal transducer and a source of silver cations, which may migrate through the microporous scaffold and exert an antimicrobial function. While the versatility of our materials and methods still leaves substantial room for optimization and even more functionalization, we are confident that our work will make an impact and inspire new synergistic solutions at the crossroads between tissue engineering and biomedical optics.