• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.59 no.3
• /
• pp.429-434
• /
• 2021

The feasibility of lecithin as a material for dissolving microneedles to improve skin permeability of drugs and the effect of the composition of lecithin on the mechanical strength, solubility, and skin permeability of rhodamine B (RhB) of the dissolving microneedles were investigated. Dissolving microneedles with needles of uniform shape and size were fabricated with the mold made using the laser-writing technique, simpler and more efficient method compared to the photolithography method, the conventional method to fabricate the microneedle mold. The composition of lecithin in the microneedle affected the mechanical strength and solubility of the needle thus, the mechanical strength of the needle increased as the composition of lecithin in the needle increased, resulting in improving the skin permeability of RhB contained in the microneedles. When comparing the microneedles containing same composition of amylopectin (AP), the skin permeability of RhB of the microneedles containing lecithin was higher. These results indicate that lecithin can be used as a material for dissolving microneedles and the skin permeability of the microneedle could be controlled by changing the composition of lecithin.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.30-35
• /
• 2018

Conventional drug delivery methods mainly include subcutaneous injection and oral administration. Subcutaneous injection has the advantages of delivering the correct concentration, but it might cause pain and trauma to patients. Although oral administrations do not accompany pain as the subcutaneous injection, unexpected side effects may occur because they undergo digestion process and it is not easy for many drugs to be exposed to targeted sites with proper concentration. While dissolving microneedles have been extensively studied to overcome the limitations of conventional subcutaneous injection, the effects on microneedle shapes for drug release have not been fully explored. In this study, the characteristics of hyaluronic acid microneedles for cone and quadrangular pyramidal shapes were examined by the size, volume, contact surface area, skin permeability, and dissolution rate. As a result, the cone shapes of hyaluronic acid microneedles had high skin permeability, and the quadrangular pyramid of shapes hyaluronic acid microneedles showed a fast dissolution rate, given by the large contact area on the skin. Based on the results, we could confirm that the shape of a dissolving microneedles can affect skin permeability and the drug delivery rate.