CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 289Wound Healing and TreatmentsSurgical Sutures and AdhesivesHydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications

A natural biological adhesive from snail mucus for wound repair

Open access
Deng, Tuo, Gao, Dongxiu, Song, Xuemei, Zhou, Zhipeng, Zhou, Lixiao, Tao, Maixian, Jiang, Zexiu, Yang, Lian +5 more·2023·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-35907-4PMC PMC9873654
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The discovery of natural adhesion phenomena and mechanisms has advanced the development of a new generation of tissue adhesives in recent decades. In this study, we develop a natural biological adhesive from snail mucus gel, which consists a network of positively charged protein and polyanionic glycosaminoglycan. The malleable bulk adhesive matrix can adhere to wet tissue through multiple interactions. The biomaterial exhibits excellent haemostatic activity, biocompatibility and biodegradability, and it is effective in accelerating the healing of full-thickness skin wounds in both normal and diabetic male rats. Further mechanistic study shows it effectively promotes the polarization of macrophages towards the anti-inflammatory phenotype, alleviates inflammation in chronic wounds, and significantly improves epithelial regeneration and angiogenesis. Its abundant heparin-like glycosaminoglycan component is the main active ingredient. These findings provide theoretical and material insights into bio-inspired tissue adhesives and bioengineered scaffold designs.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-023-35907-4

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Wound healing is a complex process consisting of four partially overlapping stages: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation or tissue modeling.

    “Wound healing is a complex process that consists of four partially overlapping stages: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation or tissue modeling [62].”

    From Chemical Variability and Biological Potential of Cornu aspersum Mucus as a Source for the Development of New Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Products (2025) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Results section (‘Inflammatory regulation in vivo and in vitro’; page unavailable) lists hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling as the four phases of wound healing. The Discussion describes them as sequential steps, but neither passage says the phases partially overlap. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Fibroblast migration and proliferation, macrophage differentiation, and neovascularization are observed during wound repair.

    “In addition, fibroblast migration and proliferation, macrophage differentiation, and neovascularization are observed during wound repair [27,62].”

    From Chemical Variability and Biological Potential of Cornu aspersum Mucus as a Source for the Development of New Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Products (2025) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Discussion describes macrophage differentiation into M1 and M2 phenotypes, and the Results report increased vessel formation during wound healing in treated rats. The passages support macrophage differentiation and neovascularization, but do not specifically establish fibroblast migration or proliferation; the paper’s reference to a proliferative phase is not evidence of those fibroblast behaviors. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Snail mucus of different snail species is proposed for the treatment of chronic lesions, skin conditions, post-surgical infections, stomach ulcers, etc.

    “Snail mucus of different snail species is proposed for the treatment of chronic lesions, skin conditions, post-surgical infections, stomach ulcers, etc. [62,65,66].”

    From Chemical Variability and Biological Potential of Cornu aspersum Mucus as a Source for the Development of New Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Products (2025) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Results sections on snail-mucus characterization and chronic wound healing identify mucus from two snail species and report improved healing of chronic diabetic wounds in rats treated with A. fulica mucus gel. The paper does not propose treatment of skin conditions generally, post-surgical infections, or stomach ulcers; its chronic-wound experiment used mucus from only one of the two species. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • It was noted that the skin of workers became softer after contact with snail secretions during cleaning and manual handling of the animals, and small cuts healed quickly, without infection or scarring.

    “It was noted that the skin of workers became softer after contact with snail secretions during cleaning and manual handling of the animals. In addition, small cuts healed quickly, without infection or scarring [12,27,30,62,65].”

    From Chemical Variability and Biological Potential of Cornu aspersum Mucus as a Source for the Development of New Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Products (2025) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Results section, “Skin incision adhesion and wound healing in normal rats” (page unavailable), reports that a snail-mucus-derived material promoted healing of rat incisions. It does not report observations of workers’ skin becoming softer after handling snails, or of their cuts healing without infection or scarring. The human observation is therefore not established by this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 56

  1. [1]Blacklow S Bioinspired mechanically active adhesive dressings to accelerate wound closure Sci. Adv. 2019 5 eaaw3963 10.1126/sciadv.aaw3963 31355332 PMC6656537 · DOI
  2. [2]Taboada GM Overcoming the translational barriers of tissue adhesives Nat. Rev. Mater. 2020 5 310 329 10.1038/s41578-019-0171-7 · DOI · Paper page
  3. [3]Bal-Ozturk A Tissue adhesives: from research to clinical translation Nano Today 2021 36 101049 10.1016/j.nantod.2020.101049 33425002 PMC7793024 · DOI · Paper page
  4. [4]Nam S Mooney DJ Polymeric tissue adhesives Chem. Rev. 2021 121 11336 11384 10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00798 33507740 · DOI · Paper page
  5. [5]Autumn K Adhesive force of a single gecko foot-hair Nature 2000 405 681 685 10.1038/35015073 10864324 · DOI
  6. [6]Lee H Dellatore SM Miller WM Messersmith PB Mussel-inspired surface chemistry for multifunctional coatings Science 2007 318 426 430 10.1126/science.1147241 17947576 PMC2601629 · DOI · Paper page
  7. [7]Huang Y Nanospherical arabinogalactan proteins are a key component of the high-strength adhesive secreted by English ivy Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 2016 113 E3193 E3202 10.1073/pnas.1600406113 27217558 PMC4988582 · DOI
  8. [8]Li Q Bioinspired super-strong aqueous synthetic tissue adhesives Matter 2022 5 1 24 PMC8896806 35252844
  9. [9]Priemel T Microfluidic-like fabrication of a vanadium-cured bioadhesive by mussels Science 2021 374 206 211 10.1126/science.abi9702 34618575 · DOI
  10. [10]Kim K Coagulopathy-independent, bioinspired hemostatic materials: a full research story from preclinical models to a human clinical trial Sci. Adv. 2021 7 eabc9992 10.1126/sciadv.abc9992 33762330 PMC7990328 · DOI
  11. [11]Pawlicki JM The effect of molluscan glue proteins on gel mechanics J. Exp. Biol. 2004 207 1127 1135 10.1242/jeb.00859 14978055 · DOI
  12. [12]Fung TM Gallego LC Smith AM Elasticity and energy dissipation in the double network hydrogel adhesive of the slug Arion subfuscus Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B: Biol. Sci. 2019 374 20190201 10.1098/rstb.2019.0201 31495311 PMC6745472 · DOI
  13. [13]Li J Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces Science 2017 357 378 381 10.1126/science.aah6362 28751604 PMC5905340 · DOI
  14. [14]Denny MW Mechanical properties of pedal mucus and their consequences for gastropod structure and performance Am. Zool. 1984 24 23 36 10.1093/icb/24.1.23 · DOI
  15. [15]Greistorfer S Snail mucus - glandular origin and composition in Helix pomatia Zoology 2017 122 126 138 10.1016/j.zool.2017.05.001 28554685 · DOI
  16. [16]Bonnemain B Helix and drugs: snails for western health care from antiquity to the present Evid.-based Complement Altern. Med. 2005 2 25 28 10.1093/ecam/neh057 PMC1062150 15841274 · DOI
  17. [17]Tu Z Engineering bioactive M2 macrophage‐polarized anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial scaffolds for rapid angiogenesis and diabetic wound repair Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021 31 2100924 10.1002/adfm.202100924 · DOI
  18. [18]Wu Y A non-anticoagulant heparin-like snail glycosaminoglycan promotes healing of diabetic wound Carbohydr. Polym. 2020 247 116682 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116682 32829810 · DOI
  19. [19]Liu J Structural analysis and biological activity of a highly regular glycosaminoglycan from Achatina fulica Carbohydr. Polym. 2018 181 433 441 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.091 29253994 · DOI
  20. [20]Deng J A bioinspired medical adhesive derived from skin secretion of Andrias davidianus for wound healing Adv. Funct. Mater. 2019 29 1809110 10.1002/adfm.201809110 · DOI
  21. [21]Linhardt RJ 2003 Claude S. Hudson award address in carbohydrate chemistry. heparin: structure and activity J. Med. Chem. 2003 46 2551 2564 10.1021/jm030176m 12801218 · DOI
  22. [22]Peng X Ultrafast self‐gelling and wet adhesive powder for acute hemostasis and wound healing Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021 31 2102583 10.1002/adfm.202102583 · DOI
  23. [23]Ma C Ultra-strong bio-glue from genetically engineered polypeptides Nat. Commun. 2021 12 3613 10.1038/s41467-021-23117-9 34127656 PMC8203747 · DOI
  24. [25]Smith, W. E. and Dent, G. Modern Raman Spectroscopy—A Practical Approach. 15–20 (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, 2005).
  25. [27]Guo Y Snake extract–laden hemostatic bioadhesive gel cross-linked by visible light Sci. Adv. 2021 7 eabf9635 10.1126/sciadv.abf9635 34261653 PMC8279511 · DOI
  26. [28]Hsu BB Clotting mimicry from robust hemostatic bandages based on self-assembling peptides ACS Nano 2015 9 9394 9406 10.1021/acsnano.5b02374 26284753 PMC4580967 · DOI
  27. [29]Leonhardt EE Kang N Hamad MA Wooley KL Elsabahy M Absorbable hemostatic hydrogels comprising composites of sacrificial templates and honeycomb-like nanofibrous mats of chitosan Nat. Commun. 2019 10 2307 10.1038/s41467-019-10290-1 31127114 PMC6534699 · DOI
  28. [30]Klein MK Development of optimized tissue-factor-targeted peptide amphiphile nanofibers to slow noncompressible torso hemorrhage ACS Nano 2020 14 6649 6662 10.1021/acsnano.9b09243 32469498 PMC7587470 · DOI
  29. [31]King DR Initial care of the severely injured patient N. Engl. J. Med. 2019 380 763 770 10.1056/NEJMra1609326 30786189 · DOI
  30. [32]Gao Y A polymer-based systemic hemostatic agent Sci. Adv. 2020 6 eaba0588 10.1126/sciadv.aba0588 32775633 PMC7394519 · DOI
  31. [33]Xiao J Chen S Yi J Zhang H Ameer GA A cooperative copper metal-organic framework-hydrogel system improves wound healing in diabetes Adv. Funct. Mater. 2017 27 1604872 10.1002/adfm.201604872 28729818 PMC5513192 · DOI
  32. [34]Valizadeh A Levofloxacin nanoemulsion gel has a powerful healing effect on infected wound in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats Drug Deliv. Transl. Res. 2021 11 292 304 10.1007/s13346-020-00794-5 32529392 · DOI
  33. [35]Eming SA Martin P Tomic-Canic M Wound repair and regeneration: mechanisms, signalling, and translation Sci. Transl. Med. 2014 6 265sr266 10.1126/scitranslmed.3009337 PMC4973620 25473038 · DOI · Paper page
  34. [36]Okonkwo UA DiPietro LA Diabetes and wound angiogenesis Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017 18 1419 10.3390/ijms18071419 28671607 PMC5535911 · DOI
  35. [37]Han C Barakat M DiPietro LA Angiogenesis in wound repair: too much of a good thing? Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 2022 14 a041225 10.1101/cshperspect.a041225 35667793 PMC9524283 · DOI
  36. [38]Simon M Aristidis V Mooney DJ Advanced bandages for diabetic wound healing Sci. Transl. Med. 2021 13 eabe4839 10.1126/scitranslmed.abe4839 33731435 · DOI
  37. [40]Dekker A Davis FM Kunkel SL Gallagher KA Targeting epigenetic mechanisms in diabetic wound healing Transl. Res. 2019 204 39 50 10.1016/j.trsl.2018.10.001 30392877 PMC6331222 · DOI
  38. [41]Sica A Mantovani A Macrophage plasticity and polarization: in vivo veritas J. Clin. Invest. 2012 122 787 795 10.1172/JCI59643 22378047 PMC3287223 · DOI · Paper page
  39. [42]Lohmann N Glycosaminoglycan-based hydrogels capture inflammatory chemokines and rescue defective wound healing in mice Sci. Transl. Med. 2017 9 eaai9044 10.1126/scitranslmed.aai9044 28424334 · DOI
  40. [43]Handel TM Regulation of protein function by glycosaminoglycans—as exemplified by chemokines Annu. Rev. Biochem. 2005 74 385 410 10.1146/annurev.biochem.72.121801.161747 15952892 · DOI
  41. [45]Xue B Hydrogel tapes for fault-tolerant strong wet adhesion Nat. Commun. 2021 12 7156 10.1038/s41467-021-27529-5 34887418 PMC8660897 · DOI
  42. [46]Waite JH Mussel adhesion - essential footwork J. Exp. Biol. 2017 220 517 530 10.1242/jeb.134056 28202646 PMC5312731 · DOI
  43. [47]Karp JM A slick and stretchable surgical adhesive N. Engl. J. Med. 2017 377 2092 2094 10.1056/NEJMcibr1709967 29166237 · DOI
  44. [48]Yuk H Dry double-sided tape for adhesion of wet tissues and devices Nature 2019 575 169 174 10.1038/s41586-019-1710-5 31666696 · DOI
  45. [49]Cho YJ Getachew AT Saravana PS Chun BS Optimization and characterization of polysaccharides extraction from Giant African snail (Achatina fulica) using pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) Bioact. Carbohydr. Diet. Fibre 2019 18 100179 10.1016/j.bcdf.2019.100179 · DOI
  46. [50]Chaudhuri O Cooper-White J Janmey PA Mooney DJ Shenoy VB Effects of extracellular matrix viscoelasticity on cellular behaviour Nature 2020 584 535 546 10.1038/s41586-020-2612-2 32848221 PMC7676152 · DOI · Paper page
  47. [51]Baltzis D Eleftheriadou I Veves A Pathogenesis and treatment of impaired wound healing in diabetes mellitus: new insights Adv. Ther. 2014 31 817 836 10.1007/s12325-014-0140-x 25069580 · DOI
  48. [52]Driver VR A clinical trial of integra template for diabetic foot ulcer treatment Wound Repair Regen. 2015 23 891 900 10.1111/wrr.12357 26297933 · DOI
  49. [53]Jeffcoate WJ Vileikyte L Boyko EJ Armstrong DG Boulton AJM Current challenges and opportunities in the prevention and management of diabetic foot ulcers Diabetes Care 2018 41 645 652 10.2337/dc17-1836 29559450 · DOI · Paper page
  50. [54]Zindle JK Wolinsky E Bogie KM A review of animal models from 2015 to 2020 for preclinical chronic wounds relevant to human health J. Viab. 2021 30 291 300 34103213
  51. [55]Axelsson J Inactivation of heparan sulfate 2-O-sulfotransferase accentuates neutrophil infiltration during acute inflammation in mice Blood 2012 120 1742 1751 10.1182/blood-2012-03-417139 22791291 PMC3429312 · DOI
  52. [56]Arnold K Design of anti-inflammatory heparan sulfate to protect against acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure Sci. Transl. Med. 2020 12 eaav8075 10.1126/scitranslmed.aav8075 32188725 PMC7315409 · DOI
  53. [57]Johnson Z Proudfoot A Handel T Interaction of chemokines and glycosaminoglycans: a new twist in the regulation of chemokine function with opportunities for therapeutic intervention Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2005 16 625 636 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2005.04.006 15990353 · DOI
  54. [58]Bardill JR Topical gel-based biomaterials for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers Acta Biomater. 2022 138 73 91 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.10.045 34728428 PMC8738150 · DOI
  55. [60]Zheng L A hemostatic sponge derived from skin secretion of Andrias davidianus and nanocellulose Chem. Eng. J. 2021 416 129136 10.1016/j.cej.2021.129136 · DOI
  56. [61]Robinson MD McCarthy DJ Smyth GK edgeR: a bioconductor package for differential expression analysis of digital gene expression data Bioinformatics 2010 26 139 140 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp616 19910308 PMC2796818 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Deng, T., Gao, D., Song, X., Zhou, Z., Zhou, L., Tao, M., Jiang, Z., Yang, L., Luo, L., Zhou, A., Hu, L., Qin, H., & Wu, M.
Affiliations
  • Kunming Institute of Botany (CN)
  • State Ethnic Affairs Commission (CN)
Corresponding author
Wu, Mingyi
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2023-01-24
Volume
14
Issue
1
Pages
396-396
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-35907-4
PMC
PMC9873654
OpenAlex
W4317853302
Cited by
289
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 56 · 2025: 120 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 28
FWCI
31.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y2021104)
  • Recruitment Program of Global Experts
  • Youth Innovation Promotion Association
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Wound Healing and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Surgical Sutures and Adhesives
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
Keywords
snail mucus, wound healing, full-thickness skin wounds, diabetic wounds, heparin-like glycosaminoglycans, hemostasis, biocompatibility, biodegradability, macrophage polarization, anti-inflammatory phenotype, epithelial regeneration, angiogenesis, bioengineered scaffolds
MeSH terms
Adhesives, Animals, Glycosaminoglycans, Male, Mucus, Snails, Tissue Adhesives, Hydrogels, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review