A wide range of emerging biomedical applications and clinical interventions rely on the ability to deliver living cells via hollow, high-aspect-ratio microneedles. Recently, microneedle arrays (MNA) have gained increa...
A wide range of emerging biomedical applications and clinical interventions rely on the ability to deliver living cells via hollow, high-aspect-ratio microneedles. Recently, microneedle arrays (MNA) have gained increasing interest due to inherent benefits for drug delivery; however, studies exploring the potential to harness such advantages for cell delivery have been impeded due to the difficulties in manufacturing high-aspect-ratio MNAs suitable for delivering mammalian cells. To bypass these challenges, here we leverage and extend our previously reported hybrid additive manufacturing (or "three-dimensional (3D) printing) strategy—i.e., the combined the "Vat Photopolymerization (VPP)" technique, "Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)" 3D printing with "Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing (DLW)"—to 3D print hollow MNAs that are suitable for cell delivery investigations. Specifically, we 3D printed four sets of 650 µm-tall MNAs corresponding to needle-specific inner diameters (IDs) of 25 µm, 50 µm, 75 µm, and 100 µm, and then examined the effects of these MNAs on the post-delivery viability of both dendritic cells (DCs) and HEK293 cells. Experimental results revealed that the 25 µm-ID case led to a statistically significant reduction in post-MNA-delivery cell viability for both cell types; however, MNAs with needle-specific IDs ≥ 50 µm were statistically indistinguishable from one another as well as conventional 32G single needles, thereby providing an important benchmark for MNA-mediated cell delivery.
Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) is a heart condition in which the ductus arteriosus-a blood vessel connecting the pulmonary artery to the aorta in a fetus-fails to undergo closure after birth. A PDA can be an important...
Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) is a heart condition in which the ductus arteriosus-a blood vessel connecting the pulmonary artery to the aorta in a fetus-fails to undergo closure after birth. A PDA can be an important factor in neonates born with severe congenital heart disease (CHD) or born prematurely. With the advent of new intravascular stent technologies, treatments based on ductus arteriosus stenting can now be completed in many cases; however, difficulties remain in accessing the ductus arteriosus in small babies successfully using current guidewire-catheter systems. Recent developments for soft robotic endovascular instruments that leverage control schemes hold distinctive potential for addressing these access challenges, but such technologies are not yet at the sizes required for navigating neonatal vasculature safely and efficiently. In an effort to meet this clinical need, this work presents an approach for 3D printing 1.5 French (Fr) soft robotic guidewires that transition from straight to “S”-shaped configurations under the application of fluidic (e.g., pneumatic or hydraulic) loading. Two distinct dual-opposing segmented soft actuators, including a symmetric and asymmetric system design (both with heights of 2.5 mm), were 3D printed onto 1.1 Fr capillaries in 35–60 minutes via “Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing (DLW)”. Experimental results revealed that both designs not only withstood pressures of up to 550 kPa, but also exhibited increased opposing bending deformations-corresponding to decreased radii of curvature-with increasing applied pressure. In combination, this study serves as a critical foundation for next-generation fluidically actuated soft robotic guidewire-catheter systems for PDA interventions.
A wide range of endovascular interventions rely on surgical tools such as guidewire-catheter systems for navigating through blood vessels to, for example, deliver embolic materials, stents, and/or therapeutic agents t...
A wide range of endovascular interventions rely on surgical tools such as guidewire-catheter systems for navigating through blood vessels to, for example, deliver embolic materials, stents, and/or therapeutic agents to target sites as well as biopsy tools (e.g., forceps and punch needles) for medical diagnostics. In response to the difficulties in maneuvering such endovascular instruments safely and effectively to access intended sites in the body, researchers have developed an array of soft robotic surgical tools that harness fluidic (e.g., pneumatic or hydraulic) actuation schemes to support on-demand steering and control. Despite considerable progress, scaling these tools down to the sizes required for medical procedures such as cerebral aneurysm treatment and liver chemoembolization have been hindered by manufacturing-induced constraints. To provide a pathway to overcome these miniaturization challenges, this work presents a novel additive manufacturing strategy for 3D microprinting integrated soft actuators directly atop multilumen microfluidic tubing via “Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing (DLW)”. As an exemplar, a two-actuator tip was 3D printed onto custom dual-lumen tubing-resulting in a system akin to a 1.5 French (Fr) guidewire with a steerable tip. Experimental results revealed independent actuator control via the discretized lumens, with tip bending of approximately 60° under input pressures of 130 kPa via hydraulic actuation. These results suggest that the presented strategy could be extended to achieve new classes of fluidically actuated soft robotic surgical tools at unprecedented length scales for emerging applications in minimally invasive surgery.
Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE)—i.e., the delivery of chemotherapeutics directly into the vasculature of liver tumors—necessitates the use of guidewire-microcatheter systems to navigate tortuous vascular netw...
详细信息
ISBN:
(数字)9798331520205
ISBN:
(纸本)9798331520212
Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE)—i.e., the delivery of chemotherapeutics directly into the vasculature of liver tumors—necessitates the use of guidewire-microcatheter systems to navigate tortuous vascular networks. These guide-wires and microcatheters typically lack effective steering controls, making successful navigation through geometrically complex anatomy challenging. Recent advancements in the area of soft microrobotics could offer a pathway to remotely steerable microcatheters at size scales relevant to TACE procedures; however, the difficulties associated with fabricating such systems have represented a critical hurdle. To overcome this barrier, here we present a multimaterial additive nanomanufacturing— or "three-dimensional (3D) nanoprinting"—strategy to achieve steerable soft robotic microcatheters that not only facilitate on-demand regulation of catheter tip deflection, but also comprise 2 French (Fr) outer dimensions (i.e., ⌀ = 666 μm) that are suitable for clinical chemoembolization of liver cancers. Specifically, we use "Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing (DLW)" to 3D nanoprint 1.5 mm-tall microcatheters capable of unidirectional tip bending of approximately 140° as well as mediating delivery of a fluidic payload. Experimental results for navigating the soft robotic microcatheter through a vascular phantom to deliver fluid payloads to target sites suggest the presented strategy holds promise for TACE as well as additional endovascular interventions and minimally invasive surgeries.
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