Synthetic and natural materials with favorable structural support and biocompatibility are widely employed for tissue repair. To enhance their biological performance, surface modification with bioactive factors is commonly applied. However, most current methods lack modularity and versatility, limiting their broader application in regenerative medicine. In this work, we developed a bioactive material, termed SpyME, by integrating the mussel adhesive protein (MAP) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) with the Spycatcher-Spytag system. This construct exhibits strong and versatile adhesion to a variety of substrates via the MAP module, while maintaining the bioactivity of EGF. The combined use of SpyME and Hydrosorb hydrogel significantly accelerated full-thickness wound healing in a rat model compared to Hydrosorb alone. These results indicate that SpyME can effectively functionalize biomaterials, conferring enhanced bioactivity and improved therapeutic outcomes in biomedical applications. Furthermore, the modular design of SpyME offers broad potential for diverse applications, including growth factor immobilization and surface engineering of clinical implantable materials.
Zhu et al. (2026) studied this question.