Abe Yuina, Nagamine Kuniaki, Nakabayashi Mayu, Kai Hiroyuki, Kaji Hirokazu, Yamauchi Takeshi, Yamasaki Kenshi, Nishizawa Matsuhiko
Department of Finemechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-01 Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan.
Department of Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, 1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan.
Biomed Microdevices. 2016 Aug;18(4):55. doi: 10.1007/s10544-016-0080-0.
A commercial painless microneedle was filled with physiological saline agar, and this needle-based salt bridge was inserted into the skin (a piece of porcine skin and a flank skin of a live mouse) to make an electrical contact with its subepidermal region. The transepidermal potential (TEP), the potential difference between the skin surface and the subepidermal region, was measured using this inner electrode and a conventional agar electrode on the surface of the skin. Control of penetration depth of the inner electrode with a spacer and hydrophilic pretreatment with ozone plasma were found to be necessary for stable measurement. The TEP was reduced upon damages on the skin surface by tape stripping and acetone defatting, which indicated the fabricated needle electrode is useful for the minimally-invasive measurement of TEP and evaluation of skin barrier functions. Furthermore, we showed that the device integrating two electrodes into a single compact probe was useful to evaluate the local barrier functions and their mapping on a skin. This device could be a personal diagnostic tool in the fields of medicine and cosmetics in future.
将商用无痛微针填充生理盐琼脂，然后将这种基于针的盐桥插入皮肤（一片猪皮和一只活小鼠的侧腹皮肤），以便与其表皮下区域进行电接触。使用该内部电极和皮肤表面的传统琼脂电极测量经表皮电位（TEP），即皮肤表面与表皮下区域之间的电位差。发现使用间隔物控制内部电极的穿透深度以及用臭氧等离子体进行亲水性预处理对于稳定测量是必要的。通过胶带剥离和丙酮脱脂对皮肤表面造成损伤后，TEP降低，这表明所制造的针电极可用于TEP的微创测量和皮肤屏障功能的评估。此外，我们表明，将两个电极集成到一个紧凑探针中的装置对于评估局部屏障功能及其在皮肤上的映射是有用的。该装置未来可能成为医学和化妆品领域的个人诊断工具。
