Microstructured barbs on the North American porcupine quill enable easy tissue penetration and difficult removal

North American porcupines are well known for their specialized hairs, or quills that feature microscopic backward-facing deployable barbs that are used in self-defense. Herein we show that the natural quill's geometry enables easy penetration and high tissue adhesion where the barbs specificall...

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Main Authors: Cho, Woo-Kyung (Contributor), Ankrum, James Allen (Contributor), Guo, Dagang (Author), Chester, Shawn Alexander (Contributor), Yang, Seung Yun (Contributor), Campbell, Georgina A. (Author), Wood, Robert J. (Author), Rijal, Ram K. (Author), Karnik, Rohit (Contributor), Langer, Robert (Contributor), Karp, Jeffrey Michael (Contributor), Kashyap, Anurag, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (Contributor), Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology (Contributor), Harvard University- (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), 2013-07-18T20:44:50Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Cho, Woo-Kyung  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Harvard University-  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Cho, Woo-Kyung  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Ankrum, James Allen  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Chester, Shawn Alexander  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Yang, Seung Yun  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Karnik, Rohit  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Langer, Robert  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Karp, Jeffrey Michael  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Ankrum, James Allen  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Guo, Dagang  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Chester, Shawn Alexander  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Yang, Seung Yun  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Campbell, Georgina A.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Wood, Robert J.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Rijal, Ram K.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Karnik, Rohit  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Langer, Robert  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Karp, Jeffrey Michael  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Kashyap, Anurag, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Microstructured barbs on the North American porcupine quill enable easy tissue penetration and difficult removal 
260 |b National Academy of Sciences (U.S.),   |c 2013-07-18T20:44:50Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79629 
520 |a North American porcupines are well known for their specialized hairs, or quills that feature microscopic backward-facing deployable barbs that are used in self-defense. Herein we show that the natural quill's geometry enables easy penetration and high tissue adhesion where the barbs specifically contribute to adhesion and unexpectedly, dramatically reduce the force required to penetrate tissue. Reduced penetration force is achieved by topography that appears to create stress concentrations along regions of the quill where the cross sectional diameter grows rapidly, facilitating cutting of the tissue. Barbs located near the first geometrical transition zone exhibit the most substantial impact on minimizing the force required for penetration. Barbs at the tip of the quill independently exhibit the greatest impact on tissue adhesion force and the cooperation between barbs in the 0-2 mm and 2-4 mm regions appears critical to enhance tissue adhesion force. The dual functions of barbs were reproduced with replica molded synthetic polyurethane quills. These findings should serve as the basis for the development of bio-inspired devices such as tissue adhesives or needles, trocars, and vascular tunnelers where minimizing the penetration force is important to prevent collateral damage. 
520 |a National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM086433) 
520 |a American Heart Association (Grant 0835601D) 
520 |a National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant NIRT 0609182) 
520 |a National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Grant DE013023) 
520 |a National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant NRF-2010-357-D00277) 
520 |a National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship Program) 
520 |a National Natural Science Foundation (China) (no: 51273159) 
520 |a National Natural Science Foundation (China) (no. 51072159) 
520 |a China. Ministry of Education (Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities, 2301G107aaa) 
520 |a China. Ministry of Education (Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities, NCET-08-0444) 
520 |a China Scholarship Council 
520 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences