While sutures have evolved over millennia, and catgut gave way to synthetics for stitching up injuries and surgical wounds, the basic process of suturing tissue remains the same. However, the method may finally have become outdated, say a team of researchers at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.

Biology Professor Andrew Smith’s research focus is in gels, specifically the gels secreted by certain slugs and snails. It’s similar to the glue secreted by mollusks that allows them to stick firmly to wave-battered rocks.

Current medical adhesives have their limitations, he says. When binding internal surgical incisions for example, stitches and staples are still the go-to method because adhesives can fail from exposure to bodily fluids. However, stitches and staples can fail as well, causing leakage and other complications.

Modern adhesives also work best when a surface cut is relatively straight, clean, and shallow, and not so well when it comes to holding jagged cuts together. Smith’s work with slugs and snails, and the work of others researching the biomechanics of creatures such as mussels and barnacles, are paving the way to that day in the not-too-distant future when a needle and suture, or staple, may be obsolete.

“Gel like this would make an ideal medical adhesive,” Smith says. “It would stick to wet surfaces, and no matter how much the tissue flexed and bent, the gel would flex and bend with it. There would be no leakage or scarring.”

The gel produced by snails and slugs typically functions as a lubricant to help the animal glide across surfaces. Chemically, Smith describes these gels as “a dilute, tangled network of polymers” that are neither a solid nor liquid. He and the undergraduate students who help with research in his lab are examining the internal chemical processes whereby a slug or other mollusk converts that lubricant into powerful glue.

What they’ve determined so far is that ions of metal such as zinc, calcium, iron, and copper help create strong cross-links between those polymers, which set and stiffen the gel.

Smith says that he envisions a future where needle and thread are obsolete in hospitals, medical offices, and even the battlefield.

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