Materials Science and Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Biomedical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Adv Mater. 2023 Apr;35(17):e2211581. doi: 10.1002/adma.202211581. Epub 2023 Mar 18.
Low-profile and transient ingestible electronic capsules for diagnostics and therapeutics can replace widely used yet invasive procedures such as endoscopies. Several gastrointestinal diseases such as reflux disease, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and eosinophilic esophagitis result in increased intercellular dilation in epithelial barriers. Currently, the primary method of diagnosing and monitoring epithelial barrier integrity is via endoscopic tissue biopsies followed by histological imaging. Here, a gelatin-based ingestible electronic capsule that can monitor epithelial barriers via electrochemical impedance measurements is proposed. Toward this end, material-specific transfer printing methodologies to manufacture soft-gelatin-based electronics, an in vitro synthetic disease model to validate impedance-based sensing, and tests of capsules using ex vivo using porcine esophageal tissue are described. The technologies described herein can advance next generation of oral diagnostic devices that reduce invasiveness and improve convenience for patients.
用于诊断和治疗的低轮廓和瞬态可食用电子胶囊可以替代广泛使用的但具有侵入性的程序，例如内窥镜检查。几种胃肠道疾病，如反流病、克罗恩病、肠易激综合征和嗜酸性食管炎，导致上皮屏障中的细胞间扩张增加。目前，诊断和监测上皮屏障完整性的主要方法是通过内窥镜组织活检，然后进行组织学成像。在这里，提出了一种基于明胶的可食用电子胶囊，可以通过电化学阻抗测量来监测上皮屏障。为此，描述了用于制造基于软明胶的电子设备的特定于材料的转移印刷方法、用于验证基于阻抗的传感的体外合成疾病模型以及使用猪食管组织进行的胶囊测试。本文所述的技术可以推进下一代口腔诊断设备，减少侵入性并提高患者的便利性。
