Polymeric microneedles' swelling property characterizations using micro-optical coherence tomography

Abstract

We report on noninvasive characterization of MNs' real-time swelling property in mice-skin using a lab-built micro-optical coherence tomography (μOCT). Specifically, we propose to encapsulate the iron-oxide (Fes3O4) nanoparticles into polymeric MNs as contrast agent to enhance OCT image contrast, and then evaluate its influences on contrast enhancement quantitatively. The MNs' real-time temporal swelling behaviors in mice-skin are recorded and analyzed. This is the first quantitative study on MNs' temporal swelling property in biological tissue using μOCT.