Inflammation involves a cascade of cellular and molecular mediators that ultimately lead to the infiltration of immune cells into the affected area. This inflammatory process in skin is common to many diseases including acne, infection, and psoriasis, with the presence or absence of immune cells a potential diagnostic marker. Here we show that skin inflammation can be non-invasively measured and mapped using a paint-on oxygen sensing bandage in an in vivo porcine inflammation model. After injection of a known inflammatory agent, the bandage could track the increase, plateau, and decrease in oxygen consumption at the injury site over 7 weeks, as well as discern inflammation resultant from injection at various depths beneath the surface of the skin. Both the initial rate of pO 2 change and the change in bandage pO 2 at equilibration (CBP 20 ) were found to be directly related to the metabolic oxygen consumption rate of the tissue in contact. Healthy skin demonstrated an initial pO 2 decrease rate of 6.5 , and a larger CBP 20 of 140 mmHg . The change in the bandage pO 2 before and after equilibration with tissue was found to correlate well with histological evidence of skin inflammation in the animals. Birngruber, G. Apiou-Sbirlea, R. Matyal, T. Huang, R. Chan, S. J. Lin, and C. L. Evans, "Non-invasive transdermal two-dimensional mapping of cutaneous oxygenation with a rapid-drying liquid bandage," Biomed.
The complex surface topology and soft mechanics of the skin poses a considerable challenge to the development of wearable, conformal sensors. As a results, current clinical assessments of healing-related skin parameters often rely on bulky and expensive optical systems that are difficult to deploy at the point of care. Here, using a rapid-drying, liquid bandage containing oxygen-sensing molecules, we created a wearable sensor bandage that conforms the surface geometry of skin and wounds, and provides two-dimensional maps of cutaneous oxygenation in a nondisruptive fashion. Custom oxygen sensing phosphors have been developed in house that are at least five times brighter than the commercial sensing molecules, enabling the visualization of oxygen concentration using a simple color camera or even by eye under ambient lighting conditions. The oxygen-sensing bandage has been applied to monitor tissue ischemia, graft integration, as well as the progression of burn in animal models. Recent studies have demonstrated its ability to track and quantify skin inflammation induced by complete Freund's adjuvant in an in vivo porcine model.View presentation recording on the SPIE Digital Library: http://dx.
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