Resorbable materials to design and manufacture transient medical devices
Résumé
The advent of fully-resorbable transient devices would expand medical tools for post-surgical wound monitoring, on-demand drug delivery, or tissue engineering. Biocompatible resorbable materials matching the mechanical properties of soft tissues are required. LETI technology platform possesses expertise to characterize, process, and chemically-tailor a variety of bio-sourced polymeric materials. They can be processed as films, bulks, or hydrogels, and conferred with antifouling, antimicrobial, or adhesion properties, as well as electrically conductive or light-responsive functions. The formulation of an ink based on PEDOT conducting polymer doped by a resorbable hyaluronan derivative (HAS) will be detailed. Combined with PLGA films as encapsulating material and molybdenum (Mo) as conductive tracks, PEDOT:HAS was used to design conformable and minimally invasive devices with improved electrodes in terms of impedance, stiffness and charge injection capability. The innovative devices have been transiently implanted in the cortex of rats for a 3-month follow up, including cortical stimulation and recording.