School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, 637459, Singapore, Singapore.
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, 639798, Singapore, Singapore.
Adv Mater. 2017 Oct;29(37). doi: 10.1002/adma.201702243. Epub 2017 Jul 17.
Skin interstitial fluid (ISF) is an emerging source of biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Microneedle (MN) patch has been identified as an ideal platform to extract ISF from the skin due to its pain-free and easy-to-administrated properties. However, long sampling time is still a serious problem which impedes timely metabolic analysis. In this study, a swellable MN patch that can rapidly extract ISF is developed. The MN patch is made of methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) and further crosslinked through UV irradiation. Owing to the supreme water affinity of MeHA, this MN patch can extract sufficient ISF in a short time without the assistance of extra devices, which remarkably facilitates timely metabolic analysis. Due to covalent crosslinked network, the MN patch maintains the structure integrity in the swelling hydrated state without leaving residues in skin after usage. More importantly, the extracted ISF metabolites can be efficiently recovered from MN patch by centrifugation for the subsequent offline analysis of metabolites such as glucose and cholesterol. Given the recent trend of easy-to-use point-of-care devices for personal healthcare monitoring, this study opens a new avenue for the development of MN-based microdevices for sampling ISF and minimally invasive metabolic detection.
皮肤间质液(ISF)是疾病诊断和预后的一种新兴生物标志物来源。由于微针(MN)贴片具有无痛、易于管理的特性,因此被认为是从皮肤中提取 ISF 的理想平台。然而,较长的采样时间仍然是一个严重的问题,阻碍了及时的代谢分析。在本研究中,开发了一种可快速提取 ISF 的可溶胀 MN 贴片。MN 贴片由甲基丙烯酰化透明质酸(MeHA)制成,并通过紫外线照射进一步交联。由于 MeHA 具有极高的亲水性,因此这种 MN 贴片可以在短时间内提取足够的 ISF,而无需额外设备的辅助,这极大地促进了及时的代谢分析。由于共价交联网络,MN 贴片在水合膨胀状态下保持结构完整性,使用后不会在皮肤中留下残留物。更重要的是,可通过离心从 MN 贴片高效回收提取的 ISF 代谢物,用于随后对葡萄糖和胆固醇等代谢物的离线分析。鉴于个人医疗保健监测的即用型即时检测设备的最新趋势,本研究为基于 MN 的微器件用于 ISF 采样和微创代谢检测的开发开辟了新途径。