Boston team develops light-activated glue to mend heart incisions
- 9 years ago
Originally published on January 9, 2014
A medical glue developed by Boston Children's Hospital cardiac surgeon Pedro del Nido and professor Jeffrey Karp of Brigham and Women's Hospital will soon replace stitches to patch up holes and incisions in the heart, GI tract, and blood vessels.
Surgical stitches and staples often damage fragile tissue and cannot immediately form a watertight seal. The glue is inspired by a viscous, water-repellent substance secreted by sandcastle worms to build underwater tubes. Polymers in the glue integrate with collagen when applied over muscle. With a blast of ultraviolet light, the glue hardens tightly to the tissue but can still flex with muscle contractions.
"We have developed a surgical glue that can be used in open and more invasive procedures and seal dynamic tissues such as blood vessels and the heart, as well as the intestines," Karp said in a BBC News report.
"Other adhesives like crazy glue cure immediately in the presence of moisture or water," Karp said. "Ours doesn't. We can place it in a very wet environment completely filled with blood and it only becomes adhesive when we cure it with light."
The adhesive has been tested in mice and pigs. Paris-based startup Gecko Biomedical, with $11 million in series-A funding, is developing the glue as a commercial product to be used in Europe in two to three years.
"As the scientists only measured the effectiveness of the glue over a short time period, it is important to see how the glue performs for longer durations," Sanjay Thakrar from the British Heart Foundation in a BBC News report.
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A medical glue developed by Boston Children's Hospital cardiac surgeon Pedro del Nido and professor Jeffrey Karp of Brigham and Women's Hospital will soon replace stitches to patch up holes and incisions in the heart, GI tract, and blood vessels.
Surgical stitches and staples often damage fragile tissue and cannot immediately form a watertight seal. The glue is inspired by a viscous, water-repellent substance secreted by sandcastle worms to build underwater tubes. Polymers in the glue integrate with collagen when applied over muscle. With a blast of ultraviolet light, the glue hardens tightly to the tissue but can still flex with muscle contractions.
"We have developed a surgical glue that can be used in open and more invasive procedures and seal dynamic tissues such as blood vessels and the heart, as well as the intestines," Karp said in a BBC News report.
"Other adhesives like crazy glue cure immediately in the presence of moisture or water," Karp said. "Ours doesn't. We can place it in a very wet environment completely filled with blood and it only becomes adhesive when we cure it with light."
The adhesive has been tested in mice and pigs. Paris-based startup Gecko Biomedical, with $11 million in series-A funding, is developing the glue as a commercial product to be used in Europe in two to three years.
"As the scientists only measured the effectiveness of the glue over a short time period, it is important to see how the glue performs for longer durations," Sanjay Thakrar from the British Heart Foundation in a BBC News report.
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Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Check out our official website: http://us.tomonews.