Skin Grafting: A Microneedle Inspired By Spiny-

Headed Worms

By: Jessa M. Del Mundo

I. Background

Skin grafting is a surgical procedure that involves removing skin from one

area of the body and moving it, or transplanting it, to a different area of the

body. This surgery may be done if a part the body has lost its protective

covering of skin due to burns, injury, or illness. Skin-grafting has two basic types

of skin grafts namely split-thickness and full-thickness grafting. Split-thickness

involves removing of epidermis while in full-thickness it is required to remove

both epidermis and dermis and it is usually taken from the abdomen, groin and

forearm or area above the clavicle (collarbone). The graft should start

developing blood vessels and connecting to the skin around it within 36 hours. If

these blood vessels don’t begin to form shortly after the surgery, it could be a

sign that the body is rejecting the graft.

With this problem, scientists had gone through extensive researches and

invented a microneedle inspired from Pomphorhynchus laevis, a spiny-headed

worm that lives in the intestines of its hosts, in this case fish. The worm securely

attaches to the host's intestinal wall by penetrating, and then plumping up its

elongated, cactus-like head into the intestinal tissue. Due to the worm’s swelling

mechanism, a team of researchers came up of an adhesive patch that

mechanically interlocks with tissue through swellable microneedle tips. The tips

plump up via a water-based mechanism that is both quick and reversible. "The
adhesion strength of the tips of the microneedle is more than three times

stronger than conventional surgical staples used for skin grafts fixation," said

Seung Yun Yang, PhD, a BWH research fellow, and first study author.

Each cone-shaped needle is made of a stiff plastic non-swellable core and

a tip that is rigid in its dry state, but swells upon contact with water. The bed of

microneedles are able to effectively penetrate tissue with little force, as well as

maintain continuous, seamless contact with tissue, and a high adhesion strength

when the needles are in their swollen state. The unique design allows the

needles to stick to soft tissues with minimal damage to the tissues. Moreover,

when it comes time to remove the adhesive, compared to staples, there is less

trauma inflicted to the tissue, blood and nerves, as well as a reduced risk of

infection.

The idea is that a skin graft will first be laid in place over a burn, infection,

incision or other wound site, and then the patch gets placed over top of it. The

microneedles easily penetrate all the way through the graft, and into the

underlying tissue. As the tips come into contact with body fluids they expand,

thus interlocking with the surrounding tissue, and keeping both the patch and

the graft securely in place. The swelling process can be reversed when it’s time

to take the patch off.

The invention may one day be an alternative to the trauma- and infection-

prone staples and sutures used in the operating room to secure skin grafts on

patients with serious wounds as a result of burns, infection, cancer and other

trauma.
II. Stand

From the researches and scientific innovations scientists have been

working continuously, I agree that skin grafting using Pomphorhynchus laevis is

ideal to make in surgical operations as replacement from the traditional skin-

grafting. This is because skin grafting using spiny-headed worms can reduce the

chances of the graft failing to attach. In fact, it is three times stronger that

surgical staples. With the help of this, skin grafting can be more beneficial aside

from covering up wounds, physiological state of the patient may be stabilized as

the wound from the traumatic event that happened can now be concealed

longer.

These new adhesive patches are not only stronger than surgical staples,

but they will also be safer, as the small holes created by the needles are

immediately sealed when the material expands to hold the patch in place. This

will prevent bacteria from getting in and causing an infection, which still remains

a possibility with staples. The patches could also conceivably be used to close
incisions in internal surgical procedures, and to deliver medication into the

surface of wounds. Which is more advantageous than surgical staples because

in surgical staples are fraught with limitations including high-localized tissue

stress and increased risk of infection, and nerve and blood vessel damage.

Generally, this design provides universal soft tissue adhesion with minimal

damage, less traumatic removal, reduced risk of infection and the delivery of

bioactive therapeutics.

References:

Innes, E. (201). The 'biting plaster' inspired by a spiny-headed fish

parasite. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-

2310432/The-biting-plaster-inspired-spiny-headed-fish-parasite.html?

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gXQU

Lewis, T. (2013). Parasitic Worm Inspires Surgical Technique. Retrieved

from https://www.livescience.com/28747-worm-inspires-surgical-

tech.html?
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Quinox, G. (2013). Better skin grafts inspired by parasitic worm. Retrieved

from https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekquinox/better-skin-grafts-

inspired-parasitic-worm-182101199.html