# Bioactive adhesive material for early vaginal wall detachment in pelvic organ prolapse

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON · 2022 · $315,758

## Abstract

Project summary
Early vaginal wall detachment often results in pelvic organ prolapse (POP). POP is a common disease in the
aging woman with a high morbidity rate related to treatment. Approximately 30-40% of women may experience
this condition, and by 80 years-old about 20% or so will need to undergo corrective surgery. However, current
synthetic materials for corrective surgery have been popular but can lead to severe complications as
recognized by the FDA in two notifications (2008, 2011) along with a high prolapse recurrence rate.
Furthermore, the POP treatment is delayed until advanced stages due to late recognition and variable
symptomatology. To reduce POP morbidity and treatment cost, a strategy to address early vaginal wall
detachment to prevent POP development would be highly desirable. Such a preventive treatment could employ
an appropriate biodegradable bio-adhesive material to reattach the detached vaginal wall to the pelvic muscle
in order to prevent further drop and detachment of the anterior vaginal wall and vaginal apex resulting in POP.
Our preliminary work indicates that a biodegradable mussel-inspired adhesive is a good candidate to attain this
preventive goal, but it needs further improvement in adhesive strength properties and tissue durability. In this
project, our goal is to develop a novel adhesive material from mussel-inspired adhesive and biodegradable
nanoparticles specific for early vaginal wall detachment. To realize this goal, three specific aims are proposed.
In Aim 1, we will prepare and optimize our current biodegradable nanoblend adhesive by altering its chemical
structure, component concentrations, nanoparticle contents and surface. In Aim 2, we will evaluate the
adhesive strength of the nanoblend using an ex vivo tissue model and assess the material biosafety, adhesive
strength and tissue growth in vivo using a rat model. In Aim 3, we will incorporate a cell recruiting chemokine
into the adhesive, which can recruit stem cells to promote new tissue formation to permanently enhance the
attachment between pelvic floor and muscle. We will further determine the efficacy of this bioactive adhesive
using a rat model. Three innovative aspects are proposed. The first is the novel concept of prevention strategy
to manage early vaginal wall detachment to reduce the morbidity of POP, which can improve the life quality of
the women patients and save therapy costs. The second is the implementation of a novel biodegradable
adhesive material system. It will provide rapid and robust adhesive to reinforce the detached vaginal wall from
the pelvic muscle, and allow new tissue ingrowth. The nanoparticles can increase the adhesive strength and
also served as carriers to deliver biofunctional molecules. The third is that this nanoblend adhesive can also
works for cell recruitment and tissue regeneration. The successful outcome of this project will provide a novel
strategy to treat patients with early vaginal wall detachment to preve...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10328255
- **Project number:** 5R01HD097330-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Yi Hong
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $315,758
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10328255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10328255, Bioactive adhesive material for early vaginal wall detachment in pelvic organ prolapse (5R01HD097330-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10328255. Licensed CC0.

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