Mercuri Magalí, Fernandez Rivas David
Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología (CNEA-CONICET), Av. Gral. Paz 1499, 1650 San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mesoscale Chemical Systems Group, MESA+ Institute, TechMed Centre and Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Biomicrofluidics. 2021 Jan 22;15(1):011301. doi: 10.1063/5.0030163. eCollection 2021 Jan.
Each individual's skin has its own features, such as strength, elasticity, or permeability to drugs, which limits the effectiveness of one-size-fits-all approaches typically found in medical treatments. Therefore, understanding the transport mechanisms of substances across the skin is instrumental for the development of novel minimal invasive transdermal therapies. However, the large difference between transport timescales and length scales of disparate molecules needed for medical therapies makes it difficult to address fundamental questions. Thus, this lack of fundamental knowledge has limited the efficacy of bioengineering equipment and medical treatments. In this article, we provide an overview of the most important microfluidics-related transport phenomena through the skin and versatile tools to study them. Moreover, we provide a summary of challenges and opportunities faced by advanced transdermal delivery methods, such as needle-free jet injectors, microneedles, and tattooing, which could pave the way to the implementation of better therapies and new methods.
每个人的皮肤都有其自身特点，如强度、弹性或对药物的渗透性，这限制了通常在医学治疗中采用的一刀切方法的有效性。因此，了解物质透过皮肤的传输机制对于开发新型微创透皮疗法至关重要。然而，医学疗法所需不同分子的传输时间尺度和长度尺度差异巨大，这使得解决基本问题变得困难。因此，这种基础知识的匮乏限制了生物工程设备和医学治疗的功效。在本文中，我们概述了与微流控相关的透过皮肤的最重要传输现象以及用于研究这些现象的通用工具。此外，我们总结了诸如无针喷射注射器、微针和纹身等先进透皮给药方法所面临的挑战和机遇，这些方法可为实施更好的疗法和新方法铺平道路。
