TPU researchers have developed a unique multichannel electrospinning system designed for the manufacture of artificial blood vessels. With its help, it is possible to obtain vessels from domestic polymeric materials. Such artificial vessels are cheaper than their foreign analogues due to the use of domestic raw materials. Also, these vessels more accurately mimic the internal organization of a blood vessel as well as its behavior in the patient's body. Researchers implemented the project with the support of the Priority 2030 federal program of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The device for the manufacture of artificial vessels is a joint project of specialists from the School of Nuclear Science & Engineering, the Research School of Chemistry & Applied Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies of TPU. This device will solve the problem of providing Russian surgeons with high quality available materials.
"The technology we have developed is simple, easily scalable, and allows us to manufacture artificial vessels with a diameter of 1 to 40 mm. This makes it possible to create large main arteries and small veins. At the same time, the products are not inferior in their quality characteristics to the vessels of American and French production, which today are considered the gold standard. Furthermore, the device enables the manufacturing of other implants in the shape of a conditional tube, such as artificial bile ducts, ureters, larynxes, and tracheas,"
Evgeny Bolbasov, project manager and researcher at the TPU School of Nuclear Science & Engineering, emphasizes.
“The material for future implants can be both biostable polymers, such as fluoroplasts, and bioresorbable polyesters, such as polylactic acid or polycaprolactone. At the same time, the device makes it possible to form a complex composite from these polymers, unique both in chemical composition and in spatial organization,” Uliana Chernova, the engineer of the TPU Weinberg Research Center, says.
The electrospinning method is used for artificial vessel manufacture. The system’s characteristic property is that you can control the created composite properties in real time. Therefore, you can control the internal structure and properties of the implant itself.
A group of developers proposed and implemented unique technical solutions, and because of them, they achieved the result.
“The device makes it possible to implement a complete production cycle on one assembly manifold. The system has three independent channels and 12 degrees of freedom in the independent coordinates of the product’s motion and rotation, which can be controlled independently for each of the channels. This enables the manufacturing of implants tailored to individual needs,” says TPU Weinberg Research Center engineer Egor Adamov.
“Today we are ready to replicate the system we have developed and deliver this necessary equipment to medical centers and to any other research and production organizations in Russia that use the electrospinning method to solve their technological problems,” says Evgeny Bolbasov.