Bioresorbable Materials on the Rise: From Electronic Components and Physical Sensors to In Vivo Monitoring Systems

Abstract

Over the last decade, scientists have dreamed about the development of a bioresorbable technology that exploits a new class of electrical, optical, and sensing components able to operate in physiological conditions for a prescribed time and then disappear, being made of materials that fully dissolve in vivo with biologically benign byproducts upon external stimulation. The final goal is to engineer these components into transient implantable systems that directly interact with organs, tissues, and biofluids in real‐time, retrieve clinical parameters, and provide therapeutic actions tailored to the disease and patient clinical evolution, and then biodegrade without the need for device‐retrieving surgery that may cause tissue lesion or infection. Here, the major results achieved in bioresorbable technology are critically reviewed, with a bottom‐up approach that starts from a rational analysis of dissolution chemistry and kinetics, and biocompatibility of bioresorbable materials, then moves to in vivo performance and stability of electrical and optical bioresorbable components, and eventually focuses on the integration of such components into bioresorbable systems for clinically relevant applications. Finally, the technology readiness levels (TRLs) achieved for the different bioresorbable devices and systems are assessed, hence the open challenges are analyzed and future directions for advancing the technology are envisaged.

Sensors Made of Natural Renewable Materials: Efficiency, Recyclability or Biodegradability—The Green Electronics

“…To bioresorbable implanted electronics, more severe specifications should be applied, because materials composing a bioresorbable component must produce biocompatible degradation byproducts that can be rapidly metabolised. For more details on bioresorbable devices, the reader may refer to the review by La Mattina et al, published in 2020 [ 9 ].…”

A Review of Bioresorbable Implantable Medical Devices: Materials, Fabrication, and Implementation

“…[23] The promising concept for the fabrication of bioresorbable IMDs tightly relies on the proper selection of compatible materials for each of the IMD components, such as substrate, conductor, semiconductor, dielectric, and encapsulation. [24] According to the categories of materials, inorganics and synthetic polymers are generally susceptible to nonradical degradation approach (i.e., hydrolysis). On the other hand, natural polymers undergo enzyme-assisted degradation (i.e., catabolism by enzymes in the intestine), [25] and microbial and fungal enzymes [26] in order to be absorbed by the tissues or decomposed to the low-molecularweight polymers, oligomers or small molecules.…”

Advanced Materials and Systems for Biodegradable, Transient Electronics

“…Transient electronics has been extensively developed for temporary medical implants, wearable skin patches, and eco-friendly applications due to the unique nature, that is, transience, of constituent materials, whose dissolution behaviors and biosafety were examined in a wide range of approaches from numerous researches. [15,40,45,46] Si NM, as a key inorganic material in transient electronics, can be dissolved to silicic acid via hydrolysis in water or biofluids, and the small, nontoxic compound, silicic acid, presents in human serum at a level of 11-25 µg dL −1 . [47] Some extent of silicic acids is absorbed into the human body, while most of them are excreted into the urine in 5-7 weeks.…”