Journal
SCIENCE ROBOTICS
Volume 4, Issue 33, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aax7043
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Science Foundation Ireland [SFI/12/RC/2278]
- Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) Centre, National University of Ireland
- Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- National University of Ireland Galway
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [645991]
- European Molecular Biology Organization Short-Term Fellowship
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant [713567]
- Harvard College Research Program (HCRP)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health) [UL 1TR002541]
- Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The performance of indwelling medical devices that depend on an interface with soft tissue is plagued by complex, unpredictable foreign body responses. Such devices-including breast implants, biosensors, and drug delivery devices-are often subject to a collection of biological host responses, including fibrosis, which can impair device functionality. This work describes a milliscale dynamic soft reservoir (DSR) that actively modulates the biomechanics of the biotic-abiotic interface by altering strain, fluid flow, and cellular activity in the peri-implant tissue. We performed cyclical actuation of the DSR in a preclinical rodent model. Evaluation of the resulting host response showed a significant reduction in fibrous capsule thickness (P = 0.0005) in the actuated DSR compared with non-actuated controls, whereas the collagen density and orientation were not changed. We also show a significant reduction in myofibroblasts (P = 0.0036) in the actuated group and propose that actuation-mediated strain reduces differentiation and proliferation of myofibroblasts and therefore extracellular matrix production. Computational models quantified the effect of actuation on the reservoir and surrounding fluid. By adding a porous membrane and a therapy reservoir to the DSR, we demonstrate that, with actuation, we could (i) increase transport of a therapy analog and (ii) enhance pharmacokinetics and time to functional effect of an inotropic agent. The dynamic reservoirs presented here may act as a versatile tool to further understand, and ultimately to ameliorate, the host response to implantable biomaterials.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available