Development of an Ingestible Expandable Capsule for Weight Loss

Xingyu Liu, Yeung Wu, Chang Liu, Kaiqi Chen and Hans Gregersen ()
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Xingyu Liu: Graduate School, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Yeung Wu: Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 999077, China
Chang Liu: Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 999077, China
Kaiqi Chen: Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 999077, China
Hans Gregersen: GIOME, California Medical Innovations Institute, San Diego, CA 92121, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-11

Abstract: Obesity has grown to epidemic proportions with 2.1 billion people being overweight worldwide. A food-grade expandable capsule named EndoXpand for the treatment of overweight people was designed and developed in this study. EndoXpand consists of an inner expandable material (core), an embracing membrane, and a gelatin capsule shell. It is designed to occupy volume in the stomach and reduce hunger sensation. The occupied volume is changeable over time, dependent on the number of ingested capsules and their degradation time. This will avoid gastric accommodation to constant volume devices as seen in the use of intragastric balloons. Several materials were tested. Collagen casing was selected as the membrane and corn silk was used to tie the membrane. Dried black fungus ( Auricularia auricula ) was the biological material that expanded most. However, synthesized cellulose-based hydrogel expanded more and was chosen as the optimal expandable core material. The hydrogel-based EndoXpand expanded 72 times after soaking in an acidic environment for 80 min. The corn silk ligations weakened and broke after 3 h. This resulted in release of the expanded material that was designed to easily pass the pylorus and travel down the intestine for digestion or excretion. In conclusion, this study provides design and in vitro proof-of-technology data for a potential groundbreaking approach. Further studies are needed in animal models and human phase I studies.

Keywords: obesity; overweight; weight loss; expandable capsule; EndoXpand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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