Liquid Crystal Elastomer as a Dynamic Treatment of Incontinence in Women

项目摘要 有两种策略可以替代或增强受损天然肌肉的功能：1）使用组织 工程化以生长新的功能组织或2）工程化能够可逆地改变 形状在这里，我们专注于理解和设计可以作为机械装置的生物材料 并因此取代受损组织的功能。本提案的目标是综合和描述 液晶弹性体（LCE）能够响应于近红外光而可逆地改变形状， 通过皮肤传递。因此，该项目将使一类新的医疗设备能够使用软 致动器使软组织变形，比如女性的尿道壁。虽然我们设想了许多应用程序， 这些人工肌肉，我们试图评估LCE的性能，以管理压力性尿失禁。 压力性尿失禁，失禁相关的事件，如笑，咳嗽，或打喷嚏，影响了 50%的女性，导致生活质量显著下降，美国每年的成本约为320亿美元。 States.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， 在乎目前，放置在尿道周围的吊带材料是永久固定的，不适应于 你的需求。这种静态行为是并发症的主要原因，并发症发生在高达10%的 例我们的中心假设是，LCE的形状变化可用于可逆地使软组织变形， 响应于IR光的经皮应用。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IR光改变形状的LCE， 控制模拟生理条件下的致动应力和应变，以及2）阐明组织 模量对LCE设备的形状变化的影响，并测量作为函数的应力泄漏点压力的变化 致动器形状在动物失禁模型。该团队包括生物材料专家（Ware）， 经皮供电装置（Romero-Ortega）和失禁手术治疗（Zimmern）。

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).