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地治疗疑难杂症或先天性疾病。眼内移植手术是最具挑战性的医疗技术之一，因为眼睛只有很小的手术区域，而且非常脆弱。因此，期望开发用于眼内移植手术的最小内翻医疗技术。我们对视网膜色素上皮（Retinal Pigment Epithelium，RPE）薄片移植手术的研究和开发了一种基于气动气囊驱动器（pneumatic balloon actuator，PBA）的视网膜色素上皮薄片移植手术工具，针对气动气囊驱动器的优化设计，我们进行了有限元模拟，并证明了其适用性，以计算和表征由聚二甲基硅氧烷（polydimethylsiloxane，PDMS）基材料制成的PBA的弯曲运动。结果表明，典型的PBA运动可以成功地捕捉在本模拟中，通过比较的计算结果中得到的线弹性区域与制造设备的实际运动。通过合作进行的连续体外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.