Importance of zwitterionic incorporation into polymethacrylate-based hydrogels for simultaneously improving optical transparency, oxygen permeability, and antifouling properties

. Moreover, hybrid HEMA-SBMA hydrogels demonstrate their excellent antifouling function to prevent nonspecific protein adsorption in vitro, as well as their biocompatibility and hemocompatibility when implanted in mice in vivo. A combination of these excellent properties of HEMA-SBMA hydrogels (high water content, high optical transparency, high oxygen permeability, good antifouling function, and low foreign-body reaction) makes them highly promising for contact lens-based ophthalmic applications. This work, in line with our other HEMA-CBMA hydrogels, offers a new strategy to design hybrid hydrophilic-zwitterionic materials for improving their multi-faceted properties of interest, beyond the conventional designs of hydrophilic-hydrophilic and hydrophilic-hydrophobic materials.