Injectable tissue prosthesis for instantaneous closed-loop rehabilitation

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 623; no. 7985; pp. 58 - 65
• Main Authors: Jin, Subin, Choi, Heewon, Seong, Duhwan, You, Chang-Lim, Kang, Jong-Sun, Rho, Seunghyok, Lee, Won Bo, Son, Donghee, Shin, Mikyung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.11.2023; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 119/118; 13/107; 140/146; 639/166/985; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/54/990; 639/301/923/1027; Biocompatibility; Bioelectricity; Chemical bonds; Closed loops; Cross coupling; Crosslinking; Electrical conduction; Electrical resistivity; Fourier transforms; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogels; Hydrogen bonds; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Neuromuscular system; Physiology; Polymers; Prostheses; Prosthetics; Rehabilitation; Rheology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Shear stress; Spectrum analysis; Tissues
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06628-x

To construct tissue-like prosthetic materials, soft electroactive hydrogels are the best candidate owing to their physiological mechanical modulus, low electrical resistance and bidirectional stimulating and recording capability of electrophysiological signals from biological tissues 1 , 2 . Nevertheless, until now, bioelectronic devices for such prostheses have been patch type, which cannot be applied onto rough, narrow or deep tissue surfaces 3 – 5 . Here we present an injectable tissue prosthesis with instantaneous bidirectional electrical conduction in the neuromuscular system. The soft and injectable prosthesis is composed of a biocompatible hydrogel with unique phenylborate-mediated multiple crosslinking, such as irreversible yet freely rearrangeable biphenyl bonds and reversible coordinate bonds with conductive gold nanoparticles formed in situ by cross-coupling. Closed-loop robot-assisted rehabilitation by injecting this prosthetic material is successfully demonstrated in the early stage of severe muscle injury in rats, and accelerated tissue repair is achieved in the later stage. An injectable hydrogel for use as a scaffold to aid tissue repair is described, the material of which is conductive so that it can be used both for electrophysiological measurement and electrostimulation in closed-loop robot-assisted rehabilitation.