Some tattoos truly make the heart go pitter-patter.

有些纹身真的会让人心跳加速。

In rats, a graphene “tattoo” stuck to the heart could treat an abnormally sluggish beat. Like a futuristic pacemaker, the device delivered electrical signals that kept the heart pumping properly, scientists report online March 25 in Advanced Materials.

在老鼠的心脏上粘贴石墨烯“纹身”可以治疗异常缓慢的心跳。科学家们在3月25日的《先进材料》杂志上在线报道说，这种装置就像未来的起搏器一样，可以传递电信号，保持心脏正常跳动。

The electronic device is currently a proof of concept, but a version for use in human hearts could be ready for testing within five years, estimates Igor Efimov, a cardiovascular engineer at Northwestern University in Chicago.

芝加哥西北大学的心血管工程师伊戈尔·埃菲莫夫(Igor Efimov)估计，这种电子设备目前还处于概念验证阶段，但用于人类心脏的版本可能会在五年内准备好进行测试。

Efimov and his colleagues have worked for years creating implantable devices that conform to the body. A main challenge is how to marry rigid electronics with soft, sometimes throbbing tissues. For most current pacemakers, doctors thread electrodes on long wires through a vein inside the heart. Every time the heart beats, some 100,000 times per day, the wires flex. Enough flexing, and the device eventually breaks, Efimov says. One solution is to use ultrathin materials that ride along with the heart’s movements, like plastic wrap clinging to quivering Jell-O.

埃菲莫夫和他的同事们多年来一直致力于创造符合人体的植入式装置。一个主要的挑战是如何将坚硬的电子设备与柔软的、有时会跳动的组织结合起来。对于目前的大多数起搏器，医生将电极穿过心脏内部的静脉。每次心脏跳动，每天大约10万次，电线就会弯曲。埃菲莫夫说，足够的弯曲，设备最终会破裂。一种解决方案是使用超薄材料，它可以随着心脏的运动而移动，就像保鲜膜粘在颤抖的果冻上一样。

In 2021, Efimov saw something that looked promising: a paper on graphene devices applied to the skin like temporary tattoos. Unlike the metal components often used in electronics, graphene is “atomically thin,” says Dmitry Kireev, a biomedical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin who developed the graphene tattoos.

2021年，埃菲莫夫看到了一些看起来很有希望的东西:一篇关于石墨烯设备的论文，可以像临时纹身一样应用于皮肤上。石墨烯纹身的发明者、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的生物医学工程师德米特里·基里耶夫(Dmitry Kireev)说，与电子产品中常用的金属部件不同，石墨烯是“原子级的薄”。

But Kireev had never placed graphene tattoos on heart tissue before. Efimov contacted him and said, “Well, would you like to try? We can help.” The researchers teamed up and tested the devices in experiments on mouse hearts and inside living rats. In the rats, the heart tattoo could correct an irregular beat by sending pulses of electricity to the organ, the team reports.

但基里耶夫之前从未在心脏组织上植入过石墨烯纹身。艾菲莫夫联系他说:“嗯，你想试试吗?我们可以帮忙。”研究人员在老鼠心脏和活体老鼠体内进行了实验，并对这些设备进行了测试。研究小组报告说，在老鼠身上，心脏纹身可以通过向器官发送电脉冲来纠正不规则的心跳。