A brand new MIT-designed surgical sticky tape could be utilized shortly and simply, like duct tape to a pipe, to restore leaks and tears within the gastrointestinal tract and different tissues and organs. Credit score: Courtesy of the researchers
The sticky patch might be shortly utilized to restore intestine leaks and tears.
A staple on any engineer’s workbench, duct tape is a fast and reliable repair for cracks and tears in lots of structural supplies. MIT engineers have now developed a sort of surgical duct tape — a robust, versatile, and biocompatible sticky patch that may be simply and shortly utilized to organic tissues and organs to assist seal tears and wounds.
Like duct tape, the brand new patch is sticky on one facet and clean on the opposite. In its present formulation, the adhesive is focused to seal defects within the gastrointestinal tract, which the engineers describe because the physique’s personal organic ductwork.
In quite a few experiments, the crew has proven the patch could be shortly caught to massive tears and punctures within the colon, abdomen, and intestines of assorted animal fashions. The adhesive binds strongly to tissues inside a number of seconds and holds for over a month. It's also versatile, capable of increase and contract with a functioning organ because it heals. As soon as an harm is absolutely healed, the patch step by step degrades with out inflicting irritation or sticking to surrounding tissues.
The crew envisions the surgical sticky patch might someday be stocked in working rooms and used as a quick and secure various or reinforcement to hand-sewn sutures to restore leaks and tears within the intestine and different organic tissues.
“We expect this surgical tape is an effective base know-how to be made into an precise, off-the-shelf product,” says Hyunwoo Yuk, a analysis scientist in MIT’s Division of Mechanical Engineering. “Surgeons might use it as they use duct tape within the nonsurgical world. It doesn’t want any preparation or prior step. Simply take it out, open, and use.”
Yuk, the examine’s co-lead and co-corresponding creator, and his colleagues printed their outcomes on February 2, 2022, within the journal Science Translational Drugs. Different co-authors embrace MIT postdoc and lead creator Jingjing Wu; mission supervisor and co-corresponding creator Xuanhe Zhao, who's a professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT; and collaborators from the Mayo Clinic and the Southern College of Science and Know-how.
A intestine intuition
The brand new surgical duct tape builds on the crew’s 2019 design for a double-sided tape. That early iteration comprised a single layer that was sticky on each side and designed to hitch two moist surfaces collectively.
The adhesive was produced from polyacrylic acid, an absorbent materials present in diapers, which begins out dry and absorbs moisture when in touch with a moist floor or tissue, briefly sticking to the tissue within the course of. The researchers blended into the fabric NHS esters, chemical compounds that may bind with proteins within the tissue to kind stronger bonds. Lastly, they bolstered the adhesive with gelatin or chitosan — pure components that saved the tape’s form.
The researchers discovered the double-sided tape strongly bonded totally different tissues collectively. However when consulting with surgeons, they realized that a single-sided model would possibly make a extra sensible influence.
“In sensible conditions, it’s not widespread to have to stay two tissues collectively —organs must be separate from one another,” Wu says. “One suggestion was to make use of this sticky aspect to restore leaks and defects within the intestine.”
Surgeons usually restore leaks and tears within the gastrointestinal tract with surgical sutures. However stitching the stitches requires precision and coaching, and following surgical procedure the sutures can set off scarring across the harm. The tissue between stitches might additionally tear, inflicting secondary leakages that would result in sepsis.
“We thought, possibly we might flip our sticky aspect right into a product to restore intestine leaks, much like sealing pipes with duct tape,” Wu says. “That pushed us towards one thing extra like single-sided tape.”
Identical tape, new tips
The researchers first tuned their adhesive recipe, changing gelatin and chitosan with a longer-lasting hydrogel — on this case, polyvinyl alcohol. This swap saved the adhesive bodily steady for over a month, lengthy sufficient for a typical intestine harm to heal. In addition they added a second, nonsticky prime layer to maintain the patch from sticking to surrounding tissue. This layer was produced from a biodegradable polyurethane that has about the identical stretch and stiffness of pure intestine tissue.
“We don’t need the patch to be weaker than tissue as a result of in any other case it could threat bursting,” Yuk says. “We additionally don’t need it to be stiffer as a result of it could limit the peristaltic motion in guts that's important for digestion.”
In preliminary exams, the patch did keep on with tissues, but it surely additionally swelled, simply as a completely moist, hydrogel-based diaper would. This swelling stretched the tape and the underlying tear it was supposed to seal.
“It was nearly an unattainable downside as a result of hydrogel naturally swells,” Yuk says. “However we did a easy trick: We prestretched the adhesive layer a bit, then launched the nonadhesive layer, in order that when utilized to a tissue, that prestretching cancels out the swelling.”
The crew then carried out experiments to check the patch’s properties and efficiency. When the patch was positioned in a tradition with human epithelial cells, the cells continued to develop, exhibiting that the patch is biocompatible. When implanted below the pores and skin of rats, the patch biodegraded after about 12 weeks, with no poisonous results.
The researchers additionally utilized the patch to defects within the animals’ colons and stomachs, and located it maintained a robust bond because the accidents absolutely healed. It additionally produced minimal scarring and irritation in contrast with repairs made with typical sutures.
Lastly, the crew utilized the patch over colon defects in pigs, and noticed that the animals continued to feed usually, with no fever, lethargy, or different hostile well being results. After 4 weeks, the defects absolutely healed, with no signal of secondary leakage.
Taken collectively, the experiments counsel that the surgical patch might probably safely restore gastrointestinal accidents, and might be utilized simply as simply as business duct tape. Yuk and Zhao are additional growing the adhesive by a brand new startup and hope to pursue FDA approval to check the patch in medical settings.
“We're finding out a basic mechanics downside, adhesion, in an especially difficult setting, contained in the physique. There are hundreds of thousands of surgical procedures worldwide a 12 months to restore gastrointestinal defects, and the leakage price is as much as 20 p.c in high-risk sufferers,” Zhao says. “This tape might remedy that downside, and probably save hundreds of lives.”
Reference: “An off-the-shelf bioadhesive patch for sutureless restore of gastrointestinal defects” by Jingjing Wu, Hyunwoo Yuk, Tiffany L. Sarrafian, Chuan Fei Guo, Leigh G. Griffiths, Christoph S. Nabzdyk and Xuanhe Zhao, 2 February 2022, Science Translational Drugs.
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh2857
This work was supported by the MIT Deshpande Heart and the Facilities for Mechanical Engineering Analysis and Training at MIT, and SUSTech.
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