Miniaturized implantable temperature sensors for the long-term monitoring of chronic intestinal inflammation

Surabhi R Madhvapathy; Matthew I Bury; Larry W Wang; Joanna L Ciatti; Raudel Avila; Yonggang Huang; Arun K Sharma; John A Rogers

doi:10.1038/s41551-024-01183-w

Miniaturized implantable temperature sensors for the long-term monitoring of chronic intestinal inflammation

Nat Biomed Eng. 2024 Mar 18. doi: 10.1038/s41551-024-01183-w. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Surabhi R Madhvapathy^#^{1

2}, Matthew I Bury^#^{3

4}, Larry W Wang⁵, Joanna L Ciatti^{1

2}, Raudel Avila⁶, Yonggang Huang^{7

8}, Arun K Sharma^{9

10

11

12

13}, John A Rogers^{14

15

16

17}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
² Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
³ Division of Pediatric Urology, Department of Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴ Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute, Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁵ Department of Urology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁸ Department of Civil Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁹ Division of Pediatric Urology, Department of Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. arun-sharma@northwestern.edu.
¹⁰ Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute, Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center, Chicago, IL, USA. arun-sharma@northwestern.edu.
¹¹ Department of Urology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA. arun-sharma@northwestern.edu.
¹² Simpson Querrey Institute, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA. arun-sharma@northwestern.edu.
¹³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. arun-sharma@northwestern.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. jrogers@northwestern.edu.
¹⁵ Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. jrogers@northwestern.edu.
¹⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. jrogers@northwestern.edu.
¹⁷ Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA. jrogers@northwestern.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38499643
DOI: 10.1038/s41551-024-01183-w

Abstract

Diagnosing and monitoring inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease, involves the use of endoscopic imaging, biopsies and serology. These infrequent tests cannot, however, identify sudden onsets and severe flare-ups to facilitate early intervention. Hence, about 70% of patients with Crohn's disease require surgical intestinal resections in their lifetime. Here we report wireless, miniaturized and implantable temperature sensors for the real-time chronic monitoring of disease progression, which we tested for nearly 4 months in a mouse model of Crohn's-disease-like ileitis. Local measurements of intestinal temperature via intraperitoneally implanted sensors held in place against abdominal muscular tissue via two sutures showed the development of ultradian rhythms at approximately 5 weeks before the visual emergence of inflammatory skip lesions. The ultradian rhythms showed correlations with variations in the concentrations of stress hormones and inflammatory cytokines in blood. Decreasing average temperatures over the span of approximately 23 weeks were accompanied by an increasing percentage of inflammatory species in ileal lesions. These miniaturized temperature sensors may aid the early treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases upon the detection of episodic flare-ups.

Abstract

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