Implantable device developed: Helps weight loss

According to the 2017 study called milyon a rising pandemic milyon for growing numbers and weight-related health problems, more than 700 million adults and children are obese worldwide.

Master student Guang Yao (seated) and chief researcher Xudong Wang (standing) make adjustments to a 3D printer used to fabricate implantable weight loss devices. Photo credits: Sam Million-Weaver

Developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, battery-free, easily installed new slimming devices can offer a promising new weapon to fight the deadlock.

In the laboratory test, the devices removed almost 40 percent of the rats’ body weight. The results of the study were published in Nature Communications today (December 17, 2018).

In measuring less than 1 centimeter or about a third of a US cent, small devices that are safe for use in the body and implantable by a minimally invasive procedure produce mild electrical pulses from the stomach natural rinse movements and send them to the vagus nerve that connects the brain and stomach.

This mild stimulation trickes the brain into thinking that the brain is full after only a few snacks of food.

Photo of Guang Yao and Xudong Wang Graduate student Guang Yao (left) and Xudong Wang (right) use a small implantable device that helps rats lose 40 percent of their body weight. Photo credits: Sam Million-Weaver

I Pulse is associated with stomach movements and enhances a natural response to help control food intake, olan says Xudong Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison.

Unlike gastric bypass, which permanently changes stomach capacity, the effects of new devices can also be reversed. When Wang and his collaborators removed the devices after 12 weeks, the study mice returned to normal eating habits and weights again.

Wang’s device has several advantages to stimulate the vagus nerve for weight loss according to an existing unit. Vag Maestro vag, the current unit approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2015, manages high frequency zaps to the vagus nerve to interrupt all communication between the brain and stomach. It requires a complex control unit and bulky batteries that need to be recharged frequently.

Dr. UW - Madison, Minimal Invasive, Foregut and Bariatric Surgery in the Department of surgery, which is not a professor of surgery. Luke Funk says the use of ongoing care could be a major obstacle. Bir A potential advantage of the new device on existing vagus nerve stimulators is that it does not require external battery charge; this is an important advantage because of the discomfort they experience when patients have to charge a battery once a week for an hour. That is, Yani he says.

In fact, Wang’s device does not have batteries, no electronics, and no complicated wiring. It is based on the fluctuation of the stomach walls to give power to internal generators.

This means that the device only stimulates the vagus nerve while moving the stomach.

Iyor It responds to the function of our bodies automatically and produces stimulation when needed, Wang says Wang. ”Our body knows the best.“

Wang is a world expert in devices that previously used implantable nanogonators that collect energy from people’s hearts and breathing fields, bandage based on movement for wound healing, and other devices that produce wearable and implantable capacitive electricity.

She and her collaborators patent the weight-loss device through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and move ahead with testing on larger animal models. If they succeed, they’re hoping to move towards human trials.

”Our expectation is that the device will be more effective and useful than other technologies, Wang says Wang.

UW-Madison radiology professor Weibo Cai is also a senior author of the study.