一本道无码

For gastrointestinal (GI) conditions such as Crohn鈥檚 disease, the primary route of diagnosis and ongoing monitoring is endoscopy, an invasive procedure that allows a doctor to view a person鈥檚 digestive system and retrieve tissue samples for analysis. These procedures can be painful and require anesthetics, limiting how frequently they can be performed.

Ingestible sensing capsules that perform diagnostic tasks as they traverse the digestive system is a promising alternative to endoscopic procedures. While there are currently rigid ingestible diagnostic capsules on the market, a team of researchers in 一本道无码鈥檚 is seeking an option with fewer risks and more convenience through digestible gelatin-based sensors. Their work, recently published in , highlights a potential path forward for this technology.聽

A person鈥檚 GI tract is semipermeable, and ideally only absorbs necessary nutrients. But with Crohn鈥檚 and other inflammatory conditions, this barrier can be compromised, causing increased intercellular dilation.聽Following an endoscopy, the tissue is imaged to determine whether it is healthy or diseased. This group鈥檚 work proposed that an ingestible sensor could perform this task by measuring a tissue鈥檚 electrochemical properties, or how ions flow within the tissue in response to an electric field.

鈥淭he GI tract is a critical organ system that is susceptible to inflammatory disorders that are often difficult to diagnose because of the complex milieu of chemicals in the gut,鈥� said聽, a professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering whose research group led the project. 鈥淚ngestible devices that can measure the physical and electrical properties of tissue barriers can provide valuable insight into the progression of certain diseases.鈥�

While this project was initially conceived in 2019 through work in Bettinger鈥檚 laboratory, it had to pivot in response to COVID-19 restrictions, as students could not conduct their research in person. The group sought the expertise of , a professor of chemical engineering, in order to determine ways in which computational methods could be implemented to continue the research.

鈥淚t was clear that some of the mathematical models my group is well-versed in, particularly in regards to impedance sensing, could be applied to analyze the experiments that this group was performing,鈥� said Khair. 鈥淲e utilized and extended these models to successfully interpret this experimental data.鈥�

Using polymer and material science, the team worked to adapt electrode devices into a capsule material with both essential mechanical properties and the ability to degrade at the desired rate.聽

As one of the few laboratories in the country working on ingestible medical devices, projects such as this can serve as a template of opportunities for designing devices with the specific application of replacing invasive endoscopies.

鈥淭he future goal is that patients could use this device at home without a clinician administering the procedure and have more real-time, comprehensive data,鈥� said Gaurav Balakrishnan, a Ph.D. student who worked on the project.