Oral environment targeting sutures for refractory oral wound

The use of sutures for stable wound closure in the humid, microbiologically complex oral environment is critical for mucosal healing. However, traditional absorbable sutures often loosen due to oral movements, leading to micro-gaps and accelerated microbial colonization, which disrupts healing. Inspired by spider silk's "expansion-induced supercontraction" in humidity, this study develops tea polyphenols self-contracting sutures to enhance mechanical reinforcement and repair efficiency. This next-generation degradable suture features a spider silk-inspired elastic network: polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) chains provide entropy-driven elastic recovery, while an ion-crosslinked network of sodium alginate and Ca²⁺ serves as a moisture-responsive unit. When dry, the network maintains pre-tension. Upon hydration, water molecules competitively coordinate with alginate and Ca²⁺, reducing crosslink density. This allows the PVA network to actively contract within four hours post-surgery, approximating wound edges, minimizing gaps, and reducing bacterial invasion. This next-generation degradable suture exhibits robust antibacterial activity, with 90.3 % inhibition against E. coli and 95.6 % against S. aureus. It also exerts significant biological regulation: compared to controls, it upregulates anti-inflammatory IL-10 expression by 2.41-fold, enhances oxidative stress scavenging capacity by 1.87-fold, and promotes angiogenesis. In vivo tests on difficult oral wounds show this next-generation degradable suture accelerates healing, reduces scarring, and improves tissue regeneration quality, especially in infected wounds. It holds broad potential for minimally invasive oral and maxillofacial surgeries and infection-prone wound repair.