An international research group led by Associate Professor Takamasa Sakai of the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, can inject a liquid into the eyes of rabbits, and within a few minutes it solidifies into a gel and becomes a vitreous body (in the eye). We have newly developed an elastic gel that replaces the jelly-like substance.It is expected to open up new avenues in eye surgery technology.
Various retinal diseases, including retinal detachment, require surgery to replace the vitreous (the gel-like substance that fills the space between the retina and the crystalline lens).Gas and silicone oil have been used as alternative substances to the vitreous body, but they do not mix well with water and are not suitable for long-term use.
Hydrogels are promising materials because they are composed of substances similar to living soft tissues and are mostly made of water, but conventional hydrogels absorb water and begin to swell over the years, and the surrounding area There was a risk of irritation or pressure on the tissue and damage to it.
Until now, it has been known that swelling can be prevented by reducing the amount of polymer contained in the hydrogel, but if the concentration of the polymer is lowered too much, it will take hours for the gel to harden, so actual surgery. It was difficult to use in.
This time, the research group has kept the concentration of the polymer low, and it can be injected into the eyes of rabbits in a liquid state, and it can be gelled within 10 minutes after injection and replaced with a vitreous body. Developed gel.We succeeded in accelerating gelation by dividing the reaction into two stages.
When this new hydrogel was injected into rabbits, there was no significant difference in the pressure exerted by the hydrogel on the surrounding tissues as compared with the case of injecting saline solution.In addition, no side effects were observed in rabbits injected with hydrogel even 410 days after the injection.
This suggests that the hydrogel developed this time is safe without being rejected by living organisms.Furthermore, in another experiment, it was confirmed that when rabbits suffering from retinal detachment were treated with the newly developed hydrogel, they recovered.
In the future, after verifying the efficacy and safety in the human body, in addition to the treatment of ophthalmic diseases including retinal diseases, in the future, it will be applied to anti-adhesion agents, hemostatic agents, scaffold materials for regenerative medicine, etc. Is also expected.
Published paper information:[Nature Biomedical Engineering] Fast-forming hydrogel with ultralow polymer content as an artificial vitreous body (English)
