Organ Repair, Hemostasis, and In Vivo Bonding of Medical Devices by Aqueous Solutions of Nanoparticles

Abstract

Sutures are traumatic to soft connective tissues, such as liver or lungs. Polymer tissue adhesives require complex in vivo control of polymerization or cross-linking reactions and currently suffer from being toxic, weak, or inefficient within the wet conditions of the body. Herein, we demonstrate using Stöber silica or iron oxide nanoparticles that nanobridging, that is, adhesion by aqueous nanoparticle solutions, can be used in vivo in rats to achieve rapid and strong closure and healing of deep wounds in skin and liver. Nanoparticles were also used to fix polymer membranes to tissues even in the presence of blood flow, such as occurring after liver resection, yielding permanent hemostasis within a minute. Furthermore, medical devices and tissue engineering constructs were fixed to organs such as a beating heart. The simplicity, rapidity, and robustness of nanobridging bode well for clinical applications, surgery, and regenerative medicine.

An elastic second skin

“…This loss of elastic recoil is not reversible by existing therapies 8 and consequently remains the universal fate of our largest and most visible organ 9 . Recent progress in materials science and engineering have yielded flexible skin interfacing technologies 10,11,12 that are functionalized in some cases for pharmaceutical delivery 13 , rapid analyte detection 14 , continuous physiological monitoring of medical conditions 15 , and wound healing 16,17,18 . Unfortunately, these advances have not focused on restoring the mechanical and aesthetic properties of the skin to match its original, youthful state.…”

Guidable Thermophoretic Janus Micromotors Containing Gold Nanocolorifiers for Infrared Laser Assisted Tissue Welding

“…The pig skin and the beef liver sample have no existing fibrous pre alignments. The fact that liver's mechanical properties can be restored with laser tissue welding offers the chance to utilize this kind of micromotor in the future for internal haemostatic treatments since livers as well as lung tissues can until now not be sutured 4, 5. The existing alternatives are blood coagulation factors, supporting thrombosis as well as nanoparticle gluing attempts for which one has to cut the patients open 4, 5…”

“…We compared laser based sealing properties also with the nanoparticle tissue gluing method of Leibler and co‐workers4, 5 to evaluate the healing properties. The used particles for nanoparticle gluing experiments were superparamagnetic magnetide nanoparticles, also used for steering our capsules and particles.…”

“…Wound sealing is until now performed by stitching for larger wounds or using band plasters for smaller ones 3. The stitching approach has severe drawbacks since it mechanically forces the tissue together causing kinks in the healed tissues, and in addition it creates new wounds and trauma 4. Novel approaches such as nanoparticle‐based wound sealing are promising, but since the gluing happens immediately, no further correction is possible when the wound is closed by mechanical pressure at the first time 4, 5…”

Ingénierie tissulaire

“…Lors de la phase d'application in vivo, les contraintes seront majeures car, après avoir pu insérer le tube vasculaire (sutures, colles, etc. [22,23]), il est en effet nécessaire à la fois d'assurer la fonction de transport du sang et de favoriser la colonisation tout en conservant les propriétés mécaniques. Idéalement, le constituant initial du support doit se dégrader, et ceci sans conséquences défavorables pour les tissus comme par exemple une inflammation excessive.…”