Research on micromachine technology for transplantation surgery based on tissue engineering

近年来，以组织工程为基础的移植手术有望有效治疗顽固性疾病或先天性衰竭。眼睛移植手术是最具挑战性的医疗技术之一，因为眼睛的手术视野很小，而且非常脆弱。因此，发展眼内移植手术的微创倒置医学技术是值得期待的。我们对视网膜色素上皮（RPE）片移植感兴趣，并开发了一种使用气动球囊执行器（PBA）的移植手术工具。为了优化气动气球致动器（PBAs）的设计，进行了有限元仿真，验证了该方法在计算和表征PBAs弯曲运动中的适用性。通过将线弹性区域的计算结果与所制器件的实际运动进行比较，表明本仿真可以成功地捕捉到典型的PBA运动。通过合作进行的连续离体和体内实验将验证改进工具的实际可用性。

Recently, transplantation surgery based on tissue engineering is strongly expected to cure inextirpable disease or congenital failure effectively. Transplantation surgery in an eye is one of the most challenging medical technologies because an eye has only tiny surgical field and is very fragile. Therefore, it is expected to develop the minimally inversion medical technology for transplantation surgery in an eye. We have interested in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium(RPE) sheet transplantation and developed a transplantation surgical tool using pneumatic balloon actuator(PBA).Toward design optimization of pneumatic balloon actuators(PBAs), we have performed FEM simulation and demonstrated its applicability to compute and characterize the bending motion of PBAs fabricated from PDMS(polydimethylsiloxane)-based materials. It is shown that typical PBA motions could be successfully captured in the present simulation through the comparison of the computational results obtained in the linearly-elastic region with the actual motions of fabricated devices. Successive ex-vivo and in-vivo experiments through collaborations will verify the practical usability of the improved tool.