A Microfluidic Device for Pulsatile Transdermal Delivery forNeurobiological Drugs

摘要

We present a novel microfluidic device fortransdermal delivery of small quantities of drugs in brief timepulses for neurobiological studies. The device consists ofdispensing and delivery channels connected to drug and bufferlines, respectively, and coupled by a check valve. The planarcheck valve and the microchannels are within a single flow layerwhich allows for simple fabrication and easy system integration.Drug and buffer lines are connected to separate pneumatic linesfor briefly pulsatile driving to enable drug dispensing anddelivery consecutively in a stage-shifting working principle.Experimental results demonstrate that our microfluidic device iscapable of continuously delivering well-defined nanoliter-scalevolumes of drug solution within time pulses tens of millisecondsin duration. Based on the investigation of the characteristics ofthe check valve, we have systematically characterized the drugdelivery device in terms of the dispensed and delivered drugvolumes under varying pneumatic driving pressures and pulsedurations, showing that the device has virtually zero diffusiveleakage and good controllability. Furthermore, in vitro pulsatiledelivery into mouse brain tissue using this device has also beenperformed at controlled drug volumes, demonstrating thepotentially wide application of this microfluidic device in variousneurobiological studies.