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A new implantable sensor, made from materials that can safely biodegrade in the body, has been developed to monitor patients’ condition.
A team of international researchers has designed the highly sensitive and flexible gas sensor that monitors the forms of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide in the body. The sensor is made of implantable, flexible and stretchable materials that biodegrade and are safely absorbed by the body.
Monitoring these gases in the body is crucial as they are important health indicators. For example, nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels to improve blood flow, and exposure to nitrogen dioxide from the environment is linked to the progression of conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The results were published in NPG Asia Materials.
Health monitoring with implantable sensors
Current devices are used outside the body to monitor gas levels; however, they are bulky and potentially not as accurate as an implantable device, but the implantable devices must be removed, which could mean another operation. The researchers set out to study a design that does not need to be removed.
Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Professor of Professional Development in the Penn State Department of Engineering and Mechanics and an affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, said, “Suppose you have heart surgery, the monitor outside the body may not be sufficient to detect gas.
“It might be much more beneficial to monitor gas levels from the surface of the heart or from those internal organs. This gas sensor is implantable and also biodegradable, another research direction we are working on. If the patient fully recovers from surgery, they no longer need the device, which makes biodegradable devices useful. “
Biodegradable materials
The sensor materials are all biodegradable in water or body fluids while remaining functional – capable of capturing information on gas levels. The conductors of the device – are made of magnesium, and for functional materials, they used silicon, which is also highly sensitive to nitric oxide – which can be safely absorbed by the human body.
The scientists point out that an added benefit of the design is that the materials dissolve at a slow enough rate for the sensors to function during the patient’s recovery period.
“Silicon is unique – it’s the building block of modern electronics and people consider it super stable,” said Cheng. “Silicon has also been shown to be biodegradable. It can dissolve very slowly, at about one or two nanometers per day, depending on the environment. “
The sensor was tested in humid conditions and aqueous solutions to show that it could work stably in the harsh conditions of the body, and the team used the computational resources of ICDS’s Roar supercomputer to create computer simulations that can calculate extremely small changes caused by mild shape changes or material deformations.
The researchers say future work could examine the design of integrated systems that can monitor other bodily functions for healthy aging and various disease applications.
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