Viscoelasticity, Lubricity, and Wear Prevention of Cross‐Linked Mucin Gels

Abstract In the body, biolubrication provided by mucus is crucial to reduce friction and protect tissue surfaces from damage arising from tribological stress. Here, mucin glycoproteins play a key role, and purified mucins can be used to create coatings or solutions that provide lubricity and reduce surface wear. However, for certain applications, such as medical lubricants, a hydrogel formulation may be required instead of a low‐viscosity mucin solution. Different strategies are explored to create mucin‐based gels, but it remains unclear which gel‐formation strategy is best suitable for providing suitable viscoelastic properties and, at the same time, good lubricity and wear prevention. In this study, mucin‐based gels with distinct crosslinking architectures but similar viscoelastic properties are developed and characterized in terms of their ability to reduce friction and tissue damage. Among the chemically and physically crosslinked mucin gels tested here, tannic acid is identified as the most suitable crosslinking agent; with this molecule, mucin gels are obtained with very good self‐healing properties and high lubrication and wear prevention performances on intestinal tissue. In the future, by building on these results, tailored mucin gels can be developed whose properties can be fine‐tuned to fit the specific requirements of different biomedical applications.