Transport for cells
Microrobot delivered live cells to mouse organs
Grigory Kopiev, N+1
Chinese scientists have created a magnetic field-controlled micro robot capable of carrying living cells and delivering them to the desired area of the body. Laboratory tests, as well as on mice and fish embryos, have shown the robot's performance, the developers say in the journal Science Robotics (Li et al., Development of a magnetic microrobot for carrying and delivering targeted cells).
Scientists have been working on the creation of medical micro robots working inside the human body for a long time. It is assumed that in the future such robots will allow delivering drugs or stem cells to specific organs or even their areas. In the case of drugs, this will prevent harm to the rest of the body in the presence of side effects, and the delivery of stem cells to organs is considered by scientists as a promising way to restore damaged tissues. One of the main problems in this area is the difficulty of creating a carrier for cells that could hold them well, as well as support their growth and differentiation.
Researchers led by Dong Sun from the City University of Hong Kong have developed a biocompatible micro robot for delivering cells to living organisms. Like other developers of medical micro robots, they used magnetic control, which allows not to equip the robot with an engine, battery and microcontroller. The robot is a spherical fullerene-like structure with many beams, the distance between which is selected in accordance with the size of the transferred cells.
Scientists created micro robots using three-dimensional laser lithography, in which a photosensitive polymer hardens in specified places under the action of a focused laser beam. After the polymer frame was created, a layer of nickel 100 nanometers thick was applied to it, which allows controlling the robot's movement using a magnetic field, as well as a layer of titanium 20 nanometers thick, providing biocompatibility. The sizes of the micro-robots varied from 70 to 90 micrometers, depending on what type of cells they were designed for.
A micro-robot with cells applied to it. Drawings from an article in Science Robotics.
The researchers used mouse fibroblasts and mesenchymal stem cells as model cells. Initially, the authors conducted primary tests outside of living organisms and tested the control of the micro robot using an electromagnetic system. In addition, the scientists conducted experiments inside a live danio-rerio embryo, because it is transparent and thus convenient for tracking the movement of the micro robot.
The movement of the microrobot in the embryo of danio rerio.
The authors also conducted tests on a laboratory mouse of many micro-robots, the surface of which was covered with cancer cells. Researchers have shown that cells can spontaneously detach from the robot after delivery to the desired organ.
An image of a mouse that was injected with micro-robots covered with cancer cells with fluorescent markers.
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