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).

项目概要 已经出现两种策略来替代或增强受损天然肌肉的功能：1）使用组织 工程来生长新的功能组织或2）工程机械装置能够可逆地改变 形状。在这里，我们专注于理解和设计可用作机械设备的生物材料 并因此替代受损组织的功能。该提案的目标是综合和表征 能够响应近红外光而发生可逆形状变化的液晶弹性体 (LCE) 通过皮肤传递。因此，该项目将实现能够使用软技术的新型医疗设备 致动器使软组织变形，例如女性的尿道壁。虽然我们设想了许多应用 通过这些人造肌肉，我们试图评估 LCE 治疗压力性尿失禁的性能。 压力性尿失禁，即与大笑、咳嗽或打喷嚏等事件相关的尿失禁，会影响 50% 的女性受到影响，导致美国的生活质量显着下降，每年损失约 320 亿美元 国家。在目前的手术治疗方案中，合成尿道中段吊带是目前的标准 关心。目前尿道周围放置的吊带材料是永久固定的，不适应 失禁需要。这种静态行为是导致并发症的主要原因，高达 10% 的患者会出现这种情况 案例。我们的中心假设是，LCE 的形状变化可用于使软组织发生可逆变形。 对红外光经皮应用的反应。为了评估这一假设，我们提出两个具体目标： 1) 制造并表征能够响应经皮红外光而改变形状的 LCE 控制模拟生理条件下的驱动应力和应变，2) 阐明组织的影响 LCE 器件形状变化的模量并测量应力泄漏点压力的变化作为函数 动物失禁模型中的执行器形状。该团队包括生物材料（Ware）领域的专家， 经皮供电装置（Romero-Ortega）和失禁手术治疗（Zimmern）。