Biodegradable, Biomimetic Elastomeric, Photoluminescent, and Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Polycitrate-Polypeptide-based Membrane toward Multifunctional Biomedical Implants

Current biomedical membranes in guided tissue regeneration applications are almost nonbiodegradable or deficient in functionality. The development of biodegradable biomaterials with multifunctional properties including biomimetic elastomeric behavior, self-anti-infection, noninvasive monitoring, and good biocompatibility has attracted much attention. Here, we report a biodegradable and biocompatible polycitrate-(epsilon-polypeptide)-based (PCE) biomedical elastomer membrane with intrinsic broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and photoluminescent capacity for multifunctional guided tissue regenerative applications. PCE showed highly elastomeric mechanical behavior (similar to 300% elongation and similar to 100% recovery) and biomimetic mechanical properties against several native tissues. PCE film also possessed highly efficient broad-spectrum antibacterial activity in vitro and in vivo. The inherent photoluminescent properties of PCE film endowed their real-time noninvasive monitoring capacity in vivo. Owing to the biocompatible structure (polycitrate and natural polypeptide), PCE film demonstrated significantly high cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility in vitro and low inflammatory response in vivo. Our study may provide a new strategy to design next generation multifunctional biodegradable biomedical implant membranes for smart guided tissue regenerative medicine applications.