UNAIR NEWS –  Five students from Technological Biomedic Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) through innovation have succeeded in discovering digestive organ covering membrane to deal with gastroschisis which is a birth defect of the abdominal wall. The case happened only to a newborn baby but in Indonesia the risk of this case is quite high.

The risk is still high because there are still many pregnancies from young mother from early marriages. And then there is also high parity, a mother who has delivered more babies even though it is closely related to pregnancy at old age, as well as to pregnant mothers with nutrition deficiency.

One of the solutions to handle gastroschisis case is by covering the sticking out organ temporarily until operation to close the abdominal wall is performed. The technique is called SILO (silastic springs-loaded silo).

It was discovered by Karina Dwi Saraswati, 22,  Fadila Nashiri Khoirun Nisak, 22, Inas Fatimah, 22, Fulky A’yunni, 21, and Claudia Yolanda Savira, 21, and it attracted General Directorate of Higher Education of Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and it was funded through Students Creativity Program Science Research (PKM-PE). They elaborated their research in “In Vivo Poly-Lactid-Co-Glicolic-Acid (PLGA) Study with Chitosan Coating as Digestive Organ Covering Membrane for Opened Abdominal Wall Defect”

Elaborated by Karina, the team leader, SILO generally made of silicone which is actually toxic, and they have succeeded in discovering covering membrane made of  Poly-Lactid-co-Glicolic-Acid (PLGA) with chitosan coating which is biocompatible and does not contain toxic compound.

“This material was chosen because it is elastic, biocompatible, and long lasting. Besides, chitosan coating was added to improve biocompatibility, proliferation, and cell attachment, so the membrane was expected to cover the digestive organ temporally until it is reinserted to the abdomen,” said Karina Dwi Saraswati.

The result of fungal testing showed an increased absorption band 1747.50 cm wavelength which was amide cluster I showed chitosan formed with PLGA. The stretching strength for each variation was 4.78 MPa (PLGA) and 12.96 MPa (PLGA-chitosan).

Cytotoxicity test of PLGA chitosan showed minimum limit percentage of living cells at 60%. It means that the spring loaded silo is not toxic. Besides, morphological test also did not show pores on the silo surface due to small membrane pores.

These small pores are appropriate for temporary digestive organ covering membrane which are at 0.1–10 micro. It is still on animal testing phase, but based on in-vitro,  Poly-Lactid-co-Glicolic-Acid(PLGA) membrane coated with chitosan has potentials as the best digestive organ covering membrane.  (*)

Author : Bambang Bes