Abstract
Embedding microfluidic architectures with microneedles enables fluid management capabilities that present new degrees of freedom for transdermal drug delivery. To this end, fabrication schemes that can simultaneously create and integrate complex millimeter/centimeter-long microfluidic structures and micrometer-scale microneedle features are necessary. Accordingly, three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques are suitable candidates because they allow the rapid realization of customizable yet intricate microfluidic and microneedle features. However, previously reported 3D-printing approaches utilized costly instrumentation that lacked the desired versatility to print both features in a single step and the throughput to render components within distinct length-scales. Here, for the first time in literature, we devise a fabrication scheme to create hollow microneedles interfaced with microfluidic structures in a single step. Our method utilizes stereolithography 3D-printing and pushes its boundaries (achieving print resolutions below the full width half maximum laser spot size resolution) to create complex architectures with lower cost and higher print speed and throughput than previously reported methods. To demonstrate a potential application, a microfluidic-enabled microneedle architecture was printed to render hydrodynamic mixing and transdermal drug delivery within a single device. The presented architectures can be adopted in future biomedical devices to facilitate new modes of operations for transdermal drug delivery applications such as combinational therapy for preclinical testing of biologic treatments.
Highlights
Previously reported 3D-printing approaches utilized costly instrumentation that lacked the desired versatility to print both features in a single step and the throughput to render components within distinct length-scales
For the first time in literature, we devise a fabrication scheme to create hollow microneedles interfaced with microfluidic structures in a single step
The presented architectures can be adopted in future biomedical devices to facilitate new modes of operations for transdermal drug delivery applications such as combinational therapy for preclinical testing of biologic treatments
Summary
Advancements in bioengineering and materials science have accelerated the progression toward personalized medicine by creating technologies that facilitate disease diagnosis and delivery of care at the “point-of-person.”[1,2,3] Among the many technologies critical to the realization of personalized medicine, transdermal drug delivery is one of the most important, because it enables safe, painless, and convenient drug delivery.[4]. The diversity and versatility of operations enabled by microneedles can be augmented through the integration of microfluidic devices to achieve new drug delivery capabilities.[9,10,11] the ability of microfluidics to rapidly transport and mix small volumes of fluids, while varying reaction conditions (e.g., flow rates and reactant concentrations) to optimize the resulting products, makes it an effective technology to deliver numerous operations relevant to transdermal drug delivery.[12] For example, microfluidic mixing was used to directly synthesize nanoparticles with tunable physicochemical properties such as particle size, homogeneity, and drug loading and release at the point of delivery.[13] the combination of microneedles and microfluidic mixing is beneficial in areas such as combinational therapy-based subcutaneous/
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