Patterned Intraocular Lens for After Cataract Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Intraocular lenses often experience recurrence of opacity due to cell proliferation and migration after implantation, leading to after cataract formation, which existing technologies fail to effectively prevent.
Innovation Solution
An intraocular lens with patterns featuring ridges and grooves of varying widths, formed using micro-sized laser processing, which increases surface roughness at the nano-scale to control cell mobility and direction, thereby hindering cell migration and proliferation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional intraocular lens is used, then the lens can restore vision, but cells proliferate and migrate on the lens surface causing after cataract recurrence
Solution Approach 1:
The lens surface is segmented into ridges and grooves, creating a patterned structure that physically divides the continuous surface into discrete regions. This segmentation prevents cells from forming continuous monolayers and facilitates controlled cell migration along specific pathways defined by the groove patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the lens surface are given different properties through the patterned structure. The grooves provide pathways for cell migration while the ridges act as barriers, creating localized zones with different cell interaction characteristics. The varying widths of ridges and grooves create zones of different cell resistance.
Solution Approach 3:
The problem of cell migration on a two-dimensional surface is solved by introducing a third dimension through the raised ridge structures. The ridges create physical barriers that cells must navigate around, transforming the planar migration problem into a three-dimensional navigation challenge that limits cell movement.
2Reliability
If the lens surface is made smooth, then light transmission is optimized, but cell migration is facilitated leading to opacity recurrence
Solution Approach 1:
The surface parameters are changed by introducing periodic ridge and groove structures with specific dimensions. The ridge heights, groove widths, and pattern densities are controlled to optimize both the optical properties and cell migration resistance, creating a surface that is rough at the micro-scale but maintains macroscopic optical clarity.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens surface effectively becomes a composite structure combining the base lens material with a patterned surface layer. This composite structure integrates the optical transparency of the base material with the cell-resistant properties of the patterned surface, achieving both optical performance and biological functionality.
3Reliability
If a patterned surface is added to the lens, then cell migration is controlled, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical process of creating complex patterns is replaced by using self-organizing biological or chemical processes. Cells are induced to form patterns through controlled differentiation or aggregation, or chemical self-assembly processes are used to create the ridge and groove structures, eliminating the need for complex mechanical patterning equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The pattern formation process utilizes self-organizing properties of the system itself. Whether through cell self-organization during lens development or through self-assembling materials during manufacturing, the pattern emerges from the system's intrinsic properties rather than requiring external imposition of complex patterns.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The patterned intraocular lens effectively retards or blocks cell migration, reducing the recurrence of opacity and after cataract formation by guiding cells away from the optic portion and inhibiting their proliferation, as demonstrated by experimental results showing significant inhibition of cell migration and proliferation.
Implementation Method 1
irradiating a micro-sized laser beam to the haptic portion and the optic portion to process a predetermined pattern
Implementation Method 2
increasing surface roughness of a groove included in a predetermined pattern by forming a structure having the nano-sized surface roughness in the predetermined pattern formed by the micro-sized laser beam
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided an intraocular lens including an optic portion having a circular shape from one side thereof and including a first pattern which includes a ridge and a groove, and a plurality of haptic portions extending from an outer circumferential edge of the optic portion and each including a second pattern which includes a ridge and a groove, in which at least one of the ridges included in the first pattern and the second pattern and at least one of the grooves included in the first pattern and the second pattern includes a section in which a width is formed differently.