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Updated: Nov 1, 2025
Hollow Microneedle-based Sensor for Multiplexed Transdermal Electrochemical Sensing
Published on: June 1, 2012
Hydrophilic and anti-adhesive modification of porous polymer microneedles for rapid dermal interstitial fluid
Pei Liu1, Hongyao Du2, Zhuoli Wu1
1Hubei Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials and Medical Protective Materials, and State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Mold Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan 430074, China. zhanglianbin@hust.edu.cn jtzhu@mail.hust.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Porous polymer microneedles (MNs) with interconnected structures demonstrate great potential in dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) extraction. However, the fluid extraction rate and the recovery of the extracted ISF by the porous MNs are limited by the poor hydrophilicity and the adhesion of porous MNs. Herein, we present a facile and mild polydopamine (PDA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) coating strategy for hydrophilic and anti-adhesive modification of porous polymer MNs from a phase inversion method. As a proof-of-concept, taking polysulfone (PSF) as an example, PDA and PEG-coated MNs (PSF@PDA@PEG) are fabricated through the self-polymerization of dopamine and PEG anchoring. Thanks to the hydrophilicity and anti-adhesion of PEG, the resulting PSF@PDA@PEG MNs demonstrate improved hydrophilicity, fast fluid extraction speed, and low target molecular adhesion. Besides, this method can be extended to hydrophobic polymers generally used in medical fields, including polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), etc. This investigation provides a new road for MN-based off-line analysis in point-of-care testing (POCT).
