Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, Mattenstrasse 26, Basel, CH-4058, Switzerland.
Faculty of Science, University of Basel, Mattenstrasse 26, Basel, CH-4058, Switzerland.
Adv Mater. 2023 May;35(21):e2300890. doi: 10.1002/adma.202300890. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Currently available bioelectronic devices consume too much power to be continuously operated on rechargeable batteries, and are often powered wirelessly, with attendant issues regarding reliability, convenience, and mobility. Thus, the availability of a robust, self-sufficient, implantable electrical power generator that works under physiological conditions would be transformative for many applications, from driving bioelectronic implants and prostheses to programing cellular behavior and patients' metabolism. Here, capitalizing on a new copper-containing, conductively tuned 3D carbon nanotube composite, an implantable blood-glucose-powered metabolic fuel cell is designed that continuously monitors blood-glucose levels, converts excess glucose into electrical power during hyperglycemia, and produces sufficient energy (0.7 mW cm , 0.9 V, 50 mm glucose) to drive opto- and electro-genetic regulation of vesicular insulin release from engineered beta cells. It is shown that this integration of blood-glucose monitoring with elimination of excessive blood glucose by combined electro-metabolic conversion and insulin-release-mediated cellular consumption enables the metabolic fuel cell to restore blood-glucose homeostasis in an automatic, self-sufficient, and closed-loop manner in an experimental model of type-1 diabetes.
目前可用的生物电子设备消耗的电量太大，无法通过可充电电池持续运行，而且通常是通过无线方式供电，这就带来了可靠性、便利性和移动性方面的问题。因此，如果有一种强大的、自给自足的、可植入的电能发生器，可以在生理条件下工作，那么它将为许多应用带来变革，从驱动生物电子植入物和假体到编程细胞行为和患者的新陈代谢。在这里，我们利用一种新型的含铜、导电性可调的 3D 碳纳米管复合材料，设计了一种可植入的血糖驱动的代谢燃料电池，它可以连续监测血糖水平，在高血糖时将多余的葡萄糖转化为电能，并产生足够的能量（0.7 mW cm ，0.9 V，50 mm 葡萄糖）来驱动光电和电遗传调节从工程β细胞中释放胰岛素囊泡。研究表明，这种将血糖监测与通过电代谢转化和胰岛素释放介导的细胞消耗来消除过多血糖相结合的方法，使代谢燃料电池能够以自动、自给自足和闭环的方式在 1 型糖尿病的实验模型中恢复血糖稳态。
