Development of a fluorescent method for simultaneous measurement of glucose concentrations in interstitial fluid and blood

Abstract

Continuous blood glucose monitoring is of great clinical significance to patients with diabetes. One of the effective methods to monitor blood glucose is to measure glucose concentrations of interstitial fluid (ISF). However, a time-delay problem exists between ISF and blood glucose concentrations, which results in difficulty in indicating real-time blood glucose concentrations. Therefore, we developed a fluorescent method to verify the accuracy and reliability of simultaneous ISF and blood glucose measurement, especially incorporating it into research on the delay relationship between blood and ISF glucose changes. This method is based on a competitive reaction among borate polymer, alizarin and glucose. When glucose molecules combine with borate polymers in alizarin–borate polymer competitively, changes in fluorescence intensity demonstrate changes in glucose concentrations. By applying the measured results to the blood and ISF glucose delay relationship, we were able to calculate the time delay as an average of 2.16 ± 2.05 min for ISF glucose changes with reference to blood glucose concentrations.