The unique properties of self-healing materials hold great potential in the field of biomedical engineering. Although previous studies have focused on the design and synthesis of self-healing materials, their application in in vivo settings remains limited. Here, we design a series of biodegradable and biocompatible self-healing elastomers (SHEs) with tunable mechanical properties, and apply them to various disease models in vivo, in order to test their reparative potential in multiple tissues and at physiological conditions. We validate the effectiveness of SHEs as promising therapies for aortic aneurysm, nerve coaptation and bone immobilization in three animal models. The data presented here support the translation potential of SHEs in diverse settings, and pave the way for the development of self-healing materials in clinical contexts.

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Abstract Elastomers are essential for emerging stretchable electronics, which has become more and more important to bio-integrated devices. To ensure a high compliance to application environment, elastomers are expected to resist and even self-repair the mechanical damages, be friendly to human body. Herein, inspired by peptidoglycan, we designed the first room-temperature autonomous self-healing biodegradable and biocompatible elastomers, poly(sebacoyl 1,6-hexamethylenedicarbamate diglyceride) (PSeHCD) elastomers. The unique structure including alternating ester-urethane moieties and bionic hybrid crosslinking endowed PSeHCD elastomers superior properties: ultrafast self-healing, tunable biomimetic mechanical properties, facile reprocessability, as well as good biocompatibility and biodegradability. The potential of PSeHCD elastomers was demonstrated by super-fast self-healing stretchable conductor (21 s) and motion sensor (2 min). This work provides new design and synthetic principle of elastomers for the applications in bio-integrated electronics.