Liquid Crystal Elastomer as a Dynamic Treatment of Incontinence in Women

液晶弹性体作为女性失禁的动态治疗方法

• 批准号: 10225852
• 负责人: Taylor H Ware
• 金额: $ 19.9万
• 依托单位: TEXAS ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10225852
• 关键词: 3D Print; Acrylamides; Affect; Alloys; Animals; Area; Autologous; Behavior; Biocompatible Materials; Bladder Control; Carbon; Cicatrix; Contracts; Coughing; Devices; Drug Delivery Systems; Elastomers; Electronics; Elements; Encapsulated; Engineering; Event; Exhibits; Extravasation; Female; Goals; Heating; Histologic; Hydrogels; Implant; Incontinence; Light; Measures; Medical Device; Memory; Metals; Modeling; Modulus; Motor; Muscle; Operative Surgical Procedures; Orthopedics; Oryctolagus cuniculus; Patients; Performance; Physiological; Polymers; Property; Prosthesis; Pump; Quality of life; Risk; Saline; Shapes; Skin; Sneezing; Sphincter; Stents; Stress; Stress Urinary Incontinence; Temperature; Testing; Tissue Engineering; Tissues; United States; Urethra; Urinary Incontinence; Urination; Urine; Urodynamics; Vagina; Woman; Work; biomaterial compatibility; c new; cost; design; digital imaging; high reward; high risk; human tissue; improved; learning materials; light weight; liquid crystal; mechanical device; nanoparticle; novel; pressure; response; restoration; soft tissue; standard of care; stress management

Project Summary Two strategies have emerged to replace or augment the functions of damaged natural muscle: 1) use tissue engineering to grow new functional tissue or 2) engineer mechanical devices capable of reversibly changing shape. Here we focus on understanding and designing biomaterials that can function as mechanical devices and as such replace the function of damaged tissue. The goal of this proposal is to synthesize and characterize liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) that are capable of reversible shape change in response to near IR light delivered through the skin. This project will thus enable a new class of medical devices capable of using soft actuators to deform soft tissues, like the urethral wall in women. While we envision numerous applications for these artificial muscles, we seek to evaluate the performance of LCEs to manage stress urinary incontinence. Stress urinary incontinence, incontinence related to events such as laughing, coughing, or sneezing, affects up to 50% of women, leading to a significant reduction in quality of life and annual costs of ~$32bn in the United States. Among the current surgical treatment options, the synthetic mid-urethral sling is the current standard of care. At present, the sling materials placed around the urethra are permanently fixed and do not adapt to continence needs. This static behavior is a leading contributor to complications, which occur in up to 10% of cases. Our central hypothesis is that the shape change of LCEs can be used to reversibly deform soft tissues in response to transcutaneous application of IR light. To evaluate this hypothesis, we propose two specific aims: 1) Fabricate and characterize LCEs capable of changing shape in response to transcutaneous IR-light and control actuation stress and strain in simulated physiological conditions and 2) Elucidate the effects of tissue modulus on the shape change of LCE devices and measure changes in stress leak-point pressure as a function of actuator shape in an animal incontinence model. The team includes experts in biomaterials (Ware), transcutaneously-powered devices (Romero-Ortega), and surgical treatment of incontinence (Zimmern).

项目摘要 已经出现了两种策略来代替或增强受损天然肌肉的功能：1）使用组织 生长新功能组织的工程或2）工程师机械设备，能够可逆地改变 形状。在这里，我们专注于理解和设计可以用作机械设备的生物材料 因此，取代了受损组织的功能。该建议的目的是合成和表征 液晶弹性体（LCES），能够响应于近红外光而变化可逆的形状 通过皮肤递送。因此，该项目将启用一种能够使用软的新型医疗设备 执行器会变形软组织，例如女性的尿道壁。虽然我们设想了许多申请 这些人工肌肉，我们试图评估LCE的表现以管理压力尿失禁。 压力尿失禁，与笑，咳嗽或打喷嚏等事件有关的尿失禁会影响 50％的妇女，导致曼联的生活质量显着降低约32亿美元 国家。在当前的手术治疗方案中，合成的尿道吊带是当前的标准 关心。目前，放置在尿道周围的吊索材料是永久固定的，不适应 连续需求。这种静态行为是并发症的主要因素，最多发生在10％ 案例。我们的中心假设是，LCE的形状变化可用于可逆地变形软组织 对红外光的经皮应用的响应。为了评估这一假设，我们提出了两个具体目标： 1）制造和表征能够响应经皮的iright和 在模拟的生理条件下控制驱动应力和应变，2）阐明组织的影响 模量在LCE设备的形状变化上，并测量应力泄漏点压力的变化作为功能 动物尿失禁模型中的执行器形状。该团队包括生物材料专家（Ware）， 跨势的装置（Romero-Ortega）和手术治疗尿失禁（Zimmern）。