Artificial Pancreas on a Skin Patch Works in Mice

Current insulin-pump systems that sense glucose levels and deliver insulin in response are fussy and bulky. They require calibration several times daily, respond sluggishly (causing blood glucose measurements to lag behind true blood glucose levels), and require pumps that are the size of pagers.

A team from the University of North Carolina has developed a 6-mm² skin patch with an underside composed of microneedles. When the skin patch is applied, these microneedles (composed of nanoparticles) lie in the interstitial fluid between cells. One type of nanoparticle contains glucose oxidase, which consumes oxygen when it reacts with glucose; another type is a vesicle that contains insulin. The insulin-containing vesicle is surrounded by a polyme…