AbstractProtein drugs, e.g. hormonal drugs, cannot be delivered orally to a patient as they get digestedin the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. Thus, it is imperative that these kinds of drugs are deliveredtransdermally through the skin. To provide for real-time feedback as well as to testindependently for various substances in the blood, we also need a blood sampling system.Microneedles can perform both these functions. Further, microneedles made of silicon ormetal have the risk of breaking inside the skin thereby leading to complications. SU-8, beingapproved of as being biocompatible by the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) of the United States,is an attractive alternative because firstly it is a polymer material, thereby reducing the chancesof breakages inside the skin, and secondly it is a negative photoresist, thereby leading to easeof fabrication. Thus, here we present very tall (around 1600 μm) SU-8 polymer-based hollowmicroneedles fabricated by a simple and repeatable process, which are a very good candidatefor transdermal drug delivery as well as blood extraction. The paper elaborates on the detailsthat allow the fabrication of such extreme aspect ratios (>100).
展开▼
