Sam Brusco, Associate Editor11.09.22
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have designed medical devices that can be used as stents, staples, or drug depots, then broken down on demand safely when no longer needed.
The researchers demonstrated devices made from aluminum can be disintegrated by exposing them to the liquid metal eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn). The liquid could be painted on staples used to hold skin together, or EGaIn microparticles could be administered. Triggering disintegration of devices this way could render surgical or endoscopic procedures to remove them unnecessary, the researchers said.
“It’s a really dramatic phenomenon that can be applied to several settings,” Giovanni Traverso, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told MIT press. “What this enables, potentially, is the ability to have systems that don’t require an intervention such as an endoscopy or surgical procedure for removal of devices.”
The team drew inspiration from a phenomenon known as liquid metal embrittlement, and the EGaIn alloy was used in this study. The MIT team showed that after painting gallium-indium onto aluminum devices, the metals disintegrated in minutes.
The effort began as a way to make devices that could be broken down in the GI tract. For this they designed a star-shaped device with arms attached to a central elastomer by a hollow aluminum tube. Drugs can be carried in the arms and the device’s shape helps it remain in the GI tract for an extended period of time. In an animal study, the device was broken down in the GI tract with gallium-indium.
Aluminum staples were then created and showed they could hold tissue together, then dissolved with the alloy. Finally, the researchers showed an aluminum stent they designed could be implanted in esophageal tissue, then broken down. Such stents are currently either left in permanently or endoscopically removed when no longer needed.
The scientists are currently exploring whether they could make dissolvable devices out of nitinol or other metals.
“An exciting thing to explore from a materials science perspective is: Can we take other metals that are more commonly used in the clinic and modify them so that they can become actively triggerable as well?” said Vivian Feig, an MIT postdoc and the lead author of the paper.
The researchers demonstrated devices made from aluminum can be disintegrated by exposing them to the liquid metal eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn). The liquid could be painted on staples used to hold skin together, or EGaIn microparticles could be administered. Triggering disintegration of devices this way could render surgical or endoscopic procedures to remove them unnecessary, the researchers said.
“It’s a really dramatic phenomenon that can be applied to several settings,” Giovanni Traverso, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told MIT press. “What this enables, potentially, is the ability to have systems that don’t require an intervention such as an endoscopy or surgical procedure for removal of devices.”
The team drew inspiration from a phenomenon known as liquid metal embrittlement, and the EGaIn alloy was used in this study. The MIT team showed that after painting gallium-indium onto aluminum devices, the metals disintegrated in minutes.
The effort began as a way to make devices that could be broken down in the GI tract. For this they designed a star-shaped device with arms attached to a central elastomer by a hollow aluminum tube. Drugs can be carried in the arms and the device’s shape helps it remain in the GI tract for an extended period of time. In an animal study, the device was broken down in the GI tract with gallium-indium.
Aluminum staples were then created and showed they could hold tissue together, then dissolved with the alloy. Finally, the researchers showed an aluminum stent they designed could be implanted in esophageal tissue, then broken down. Such stents are currently either left in permanently or endoscopically removed when no longer needed.
The scientists are currently exploring whether they could make dissolvable devices out of nitinol or other metals.
“An exciting thing to explore from a materials science perspective is: Can we take other metals that are more commonly used in the clinic and modify them so that they can become actively triggerable as well?” said Vivian Feig, an MIT postdoc and the lead author of the paper.