Joint research between the ophthalmology staff of the Yonsei Medical Center and the professors of the Yonsei University College of Engineering
Development of highly biocompatible liquid metal 3D soft artificial retina
Minimize retinal damage… Increase signal transmission efficiency with 3D structure
Seok-ho Byun (from left) Professor of Ophthalmology at Severance Hospital, Jang-woong Park, Professor of Materials Engineering at the College of Engineering, and Jun-won Lee, Professor of Ophthalmology at Gangnam Severance Hospital. Photo provided by Yonsei Medical Center
A highly safe soft artificial retina has been developed that can restore sight to blind patients.
The research team composed of Severance Hospital ophthalmology professor Byun Seok-ho, Gangnam Severance Hospital ophthalmology professor Lee Jun-won and Park Jang-woong, professor of new materials engineering at the College of Engineering, announced on the 19th that their self-developed liquid Metal-based soft artificial retina has been confirmed to help blind patients recover their vision.
To restore vision in patients who have lost it due to retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration, the only way to do so is to attach an artificial retina device directly to the retina or brain. Existing artificial retina devices require hard metal electrodes to be inserted into soft nervous tissue such as the retina and brain, so damage is inevitable. In this way, not only does an inflammatory reaction occur, but scars are also left which, over time, prevent the passage of electrical signals between the nervous tissue and the electrodes. Because of these technical problems, it has been difficult to use commercialized artificial retina devices in the field.
The research team has developed a soft artificial retina that incorporates 3D electrodes made of highly biocompatible liquid metal. Unlike solid metal-based artificial retinas, retinal damage was minimized by using a soft material similar to retinal tissue, and the electrical conduction efficiency was also increased by using three-dimensional needle-shaped electrodes to fit as tightly as possible to the curved surface of the retina.
Limitations of the existing metal-based solid flat electrode type (left) and the 3D electrode type artificial retina. Photo provided by Yonsei Medical Center
The research team implanted the in-house developed soft artificial retina into a mouse model blind due to retinal degeneration and irradiated it locally with light to verify vision recovery. As a result, the part of the retina that received light was about four times larger than the non-illuminated part: a signal was triggered. The retina did not respond to light at all until the soft artificial retina was implanted. After the transplant, it was confirmed that vision was restored as a response occurred depending on the type of light.
In particular, thanks to its three-dimensional structure, the signal transmission efficiency was approximately double that of a flat electrode made with the same material. There were no immune reactions around the stimulating electrode, such as retinal damage and inflammatory reactions, which were chronic problems with artificial retinas made of solid metal.
Professor Byun said: “An artificial retina device using 3D liquid metal electrodes reduces retinal tissue damage compared to existing artificial retinas made of hard metal and can accurately and stably contact electrodes even on retinas with irregular surfaces “. blindness.” “We expect that it will be possible to develop personalized artificial retinas for patients,” he said. The results of this study were published in “Nature Nanotechnology”, a sister publication of the world-renowned scientific journal Nature.
2024-01-21 08:52:16
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