By combining real heart tissue with sophisticated soft robotics, scientists have created a biorobotic heart that beats like a living organ. The model captures the complexity of the human heart in a hitherto impossible way and could be a game-changer when trying new cardiology** methods and surgical procedures.
Before using any medical intervention on a real patient, it must be thoroughly tested to check its safety and efficacy. For surgeries involving the heart, researchers have two options: simulators and animal models.
Current simulators have a short shelf life, can only be used for a few hours, and do not fully mimic all the individual structures that make up the heart. Animal research, while still very valuable in many areas of medical research, is costly, time-consuming, and undeniably controversial. In efforts to reduce the use of live animals in research, laboratory-grown organoids have progressed and have been replaced by computer models or cell lines where possible.
Now we can add a soft robotic beating heart to that list.
Roach, a senior author and biomedical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement: "Simulators have tremendous benefits as a research tool to study different heart valve conditions and interventions. It can serve as a surgical training platform for clinicians, medical students, and trainees, allowing equipment engineers to work on their new designs and even help patients better understand their disease and potential methods. ”
Specifically, the team focused on a disease called mitral valve regurgitation, which affects about 24.2 million people worldwide. In this disease, the mitral valve between the left atrium and ventricles of the heart does not close properly, which means that blood may flow in the wrong way.
For patients, if left untimed**, this can lead to a number of symptoms, from shortness of breath to swollen limbs and even heart failure. Surgery to correct this problem is possible, but it is very tricky because the structure of the valve is very complex.
To create a new way to study healthy and diseased mitral valves, the team used a pig heart as a base to remove the thick muscle around the left ventricle and replace it with a robotic silicone pump. When inflated, the pump squeezes and twists the heart like a real muscle, with an impressive ability to pump blood.
By damaging the mitral valve so that it leaks, the team had cardiac surgeons take biorobotic heart surgery and try three different surgical techniques to correct the problem: immobilize the valve tissue so that it doesn't leak; implant a device to help the valve close properly; Or replace the valve with an artificial valve.
All three steps worked. You can** the movement of the valves in the biorobotic heart – you never know that the pump is powered by silicone instead of muscle.
"It's really fun for surgeons to see every step of the way, and when you're working with a patient, you can't see the process because there's blood in the heart," Roach said. The artificial blood used in this system is colorless, so it does not obscure the view, but the robotic heart can still accept all the imaging methods used in hospitals. Being able to use such a system is invaluable for cardiac surgery training.
The team has high hopes for their innovation and is currently working to extend shelf life and shorten production time. It is also possible to replace pig hearts with 3D printed synthesized hearts.
For the researchers, the goal is to approve these devices and bring them to market as quickly as possible, because, as Roach says, speeding up and improving these processes will ultimately benefit patients.