Implants used to monitor bodily functions or to provide drugs would advance personalized medicine, but there is an inherent problem—the human immune system recognizes the device as an invader and encapsulates it, preventing the device from working properly. To combat this problem, researchers at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, have been working on the customized synthesis of biocompatible polymers to coat implanted sensors to cloak them from the immune system.
Recent research proved the in vitro stability and non-toxicity of thin layers of customized block copolymers coating tiny sensors, produced by a collaborator group at the University of Technology in Dresden, Germany. The coating utilizes a multi-layer concept that includes a hermetic sealing layer, a chemically inert innermost diffusion barrier for ions and humidity, and a surface layer of amphiphilic block copolymers.
Implanted into a patient beneath the skin, coated sensor data could be monitored wirelessly to control an insulin pump or monitor bodily functions to provide greater information to the physician treating a patient with respiratory problems. Since the coatings make the implants invisible to the immune system, the body doesn’t react to them as an invader and allows them to function.
The technique uses no heavy metals to catalyze the polymerizations. That sets it apart from other researchers, who work on similar polymer systems but often use heavy metals and then have to remove them during the process.
