Implantable Devices May Assist Weight Loss

Engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working on a promising new weapon in the battle of the bulge; a tiny, easily implantable, battery free, weight-loss device that short circuits hunger pangs. In laboratory animal testing this device has helped rats to shed close to 40% of their body weight, as published in the journal Nature Communications.

The little devices measure less than 1cm across, which is about a third of the area of a U.S. penny. The devices are safe for use within the body and can be implanted via a minimally invasive procedure to generate gentle electric pulses from the stomach’s natural churning motions and deliver them to the vagus nerve that links the stomach and the brain; the stimulation dupes the brain into thinking the stomach is full after a few nibbles of food.

Professor Xudong Wang says pulses correlate with stomach motions to enhance natural response to help food control intake. Effects of this devices are reversible; after removing the devices from the study animals after 12 weeks the animals resumed normal eating patterns and weight returned to previous levels.

This device has several advantages over existing units that stimulate the vagus nerve for weight loss such as the Maestro which has been approved by the FDA since 2015 that administers high frequency zaps to the vagus nerve to shut down all communication between the stomach and brain requiring a complicated control unit and bulky batteries needing frequent recharging, and ongoing maintenance that can be a barrier to use.

This new device does not require external battery charging, in fact it does not contain batteries at all, there are no electronics, and no complicated wirings; rather the device relies on the undulations of the stomach walls to power its internal generators; meaning it only stimulates the vagus nerve when the stomach moves, automatically responding to the body functioning and producing stimulation only when needed.

Wang and collaborators have patented the device through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and are getting ready to begin testing with larger animal models; if successful they will then move on to human trials. The team expects their device will be more effective and more convenient to use than other technologies.