Issue 11, 2024

Exploring therapy transport from implantable medical devices using experimentally informed computational methods

Abstract

Implantable medical devices that can facilitate therapy transport to localized sites are being developed for a number of diverse applications, including the treatment of diseases such as diabetes and cancer, and tissue regeneration after myocardial infraction. These implants can take the form of an encapsulation device which encases therapy in the form of drugs, proteins, cells, and bioactive agents, in semi-permeable membranes. Such implants have shown some success but the nature of these devices pose a barrier to the diffusion of vital factors, which is further exacerbated upon implantation due to the foreign body response (FBR). The FBR results in the formation of a dense hypo-permeable fibrous capsule around devices and is a leading cause of failure in many implantable technologies. One potential method for overcoming this diffusion barrier and enhancing therapy transport from the device is to incorporate local fluid flow. In this work, we used experimentally informed inputs to characterize the change in the fibrous capsule over time and quantified how this impacts therapy release from a device using computational methods. Insulin was used as a representative therapy as encapsulation devices for Type 1 diabetes are among the most-well characterised. We then explored how local fluid flow may be used to counteract these diffusion barriers, as well as how a more practical pulsatile flow regimen could be implemented to achieve similar results to continuous fluid flow. The generated model is a versatile tool toward informing future device design through its ability to capture the expected decrease in insulin release over time resulting from the FBR and investigate potential methods to overcome these effects.

Graphical abstract: Exploring therapy transport from implantable medical devices using experimentally informed computational methods

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Jan 2024
Accepted
20 Apr 2024
First published
22 Apr 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Biomater. Sci., 2024,12, 2899-2913

Exploring therapy transport from implantable medical devices using experimentally informed computational methods

L. Trask, N. A. Ward, R. Tarpey, R. Beatty, E. Wallace, J. O'Dwyer, W. Ronan, G. P. Duffy and E. B. Dolan, Biomater. Sci., 2024, 12, 2899 DOI: 10.1039/D4BM00107A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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