Abstract
Fast liquid jets are investigated for use as a needle-free drug delivery system into an elastic tissue such as skin. Using smaller jet diameters in a repetitive regime can mitigate bruising and pain associated with current injectors. In this study, we aim to unravel the potential of the method to deliver liquids into biological tissues having higher elasticity than healthy skin (i.e >60 kPa). To address this challenge, we have implemented a laser-based jetting system capable of generating supersonic liquid microjets in a repetitive regime. We provide insights on the penetration of microjets into hydrogel samples with elastic modulus ranging from 16 kPa to 0.5 MPa. The unprecedented speeds of injection (>680 m/s) together with a newly introduced repetitive regime opens possibilities for usage in needle-free drug administration into materials with elasticity covering the wide spectrum of biological soft tissues like blood vessels, all skin layers, scarred or dried skin or tumors.
Highlights
Fast liquid jets are investigated for use as a needle-free drug delivery system into an elastic tissue such as skin
We further show that penetration depth can be increased by implementation of a repetitive regime, but the minimal jet power must exceed the threshold for penetration
Control of the jet parameters allowed us to map the necessary jet power required for the penetration into materials having an elasticity range matching that of human body soft tissue (
Summary
Fast liquid jets are investigated for use as a needle-free drug delivery system into an elastic tissue such as skin. We aim to unravel the potential of the method to deliver liquids into biological tissues having higher elasticity than healthy skin (i.e >60 kPa) To address this challenge, we have implemented a laser-based jetting system capable of generating supersonic liquid microjets in a repetitive regime. The use of currently available jet injectors is associated with pain and bruising which originates from the relatively large injection depth and volume[4] This can be addressed by injecting smaller diameter jets in repetitive regime compensating for the smaller volume of each jet by its multiplicity. The thin shape has a positive influence on the penetration performance and lateral positioning of the dose[16,22]
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