This swelling stretched the tape and the underlying tear it was intended to seal. In initial tests, the patch did stick to tissues, but it also swelled, just as a fully wet, hydrogel-based diaper would. “We also don’t want it to be stiffer because it would restrict the peristaltic movement in guts that is essential for digestion.” “We don’t want the patch to be weaker than tissue because otherwise it would risk bursting,” Yuk says. This layer was made from a biodegradable polyurethane that has about the same stretch and stiffness of natural gut tissue. They also added a second, nonsticky top layer to keep the patch from sticking to surrounding tissue. This swap kept the adhesive physically stable for over a month, long enough for a typical gut injury to heal. The researchers first tuned their adhesive recipe, replacing gelatin and chitosan with a longer-lasting hydrogel - in this case, polyvinyl alcohol. “That pushed us toward something more like single-sided tape.” “We thought, maybe we could turn our sticky element into a product to repair gut leaks, similar to sealing pipes with duct tape,” Wu says. The tissue between stitches could also tear, causing secondary leakages that could lead to sepsis. But sewing the stitches requires precision and training, and following surgery the sutures can trigger scarring around the injury. Surgeons typically repair leaks and tears in the gastrointestinal tract with surgical sutures. “One suggestion was to use this sticky element to repair leaks and defects in the gut.” “In practical situations, it’s not common to have to stick two tissues together -organs need to be separate from each other,” Wu says. But when consulting with surgeons, they realized that a single-sided version might make a more practical impact. The researchers found the double-sided tape strongly bonded different tissues together. Finally, they reinforced the adhesive with gelatin or chitosan - natural ingredients that kept the tape’s shape. The researchers mixed into the material NHS esters, chemical compounds that can bind with proteins in the tissue to form stronger bonds. The adhesive was made from polyacrylic acid, an absorbent material found in diapers, which starts out dry and absorbs moisture when in contact with a wet surface or tissue, temporarily sticking to the tissue in the process. That early iteration comprised a single layer that was sticky on both sides and designed to join two wet surfaces together. The new surgical duct tape builds on the team’s 2019 design for a double-sided tape. Other co-authors include MIT postdoc and lead author Jingjing Wu project supervisor and co-corresponding author Xuanhe Zhao, who is a professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT and collaborators from the Mayo Clinic and the Southern University of Science and Technology. Yuk, the study’s co-lead and co-corresponding author, and his colleagues have published their results today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. It doesn’t need any preparation or prior step. “Surgeons could use it as they use duct tape in the nonsurgical world. “We think this surgical tape is a good base technology to be made into an actual, off-the-shelf product,” says Hyunwoo Yuk, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The team envisions the surgical sticky patch could one day be stocked in operating rooms and used as a fast and safe alternative or reinforcement to hand-sewn sutures to repair leaks and tears in the gut and other biological tissues. Once an injury is fully healed, the patch gradually degrades without causing inflammation or sticking to surrounding tissues. It is also flexible, able to expand and contract with a functioning organ as it heals. The adhesive binds strongly to tissues within several seconds and holds for over a month. In numerous experiments, the team has shown the patch can be quickly stuck to large tears and punctures in the colon, stomach, and intestines of various animal models. In its current formulation, the adhesive is targeted to seal defects in the gastrointestinal tract, which the engineers describe as the body’s own biological ductwork. Like duct tape, the new patch is sticky on one side and smooth on the other. MIT engineers have now developed a kind of surgical duct tape - a strong, flexible, and biocompatible sticky patch that can be easily and quickly applied to biological tissues and organs to help seal tears and wounds. A staple on any engineer’s workbench, duct tape is a quick and dependable fix for cracks and tears in many structural materials.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |