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Tattoo Inks for Optical Biosensing in Interstitial Fluid
Author(s) -
Pazos Martalu D.,
Hu Yubing,
Elani Yuval,
Browning Kathryn L.,
Jiang Nan,
Yetisen Ali K.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced healthcare materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.288
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 2192-2659
pISSN - 2192-2640
DOI - 10.1002/adhm.202101238
Subject(s) - biocompatible material , biosensor , interstitial fluid , point of care testing , nanotechnology , surface modification , point of care , materials science , biomedical engineering , medicine , intensive care medicine , computer science , pathology , chemistry
The persistence of traditional tattoo inks presents an advantage for continuous and long‐term health monitoring in point of care devices. The replacement of tattoo pigments with optical biosensors aims a promising alternative for monitoring blood biomarkers. Tattoo inks functionalization enables the control of interstitial biomarkers with correlated concentrations in plasma, to diagnose diseases, evaluate progression, and prevent complications associated with physio pathological disorders or medication mismatches. The specific biomarkers in interstitial fluid provide a new source of information, especially for skin diseases. The study of tattoo inks displays insufficient regulation in their composition, a lack of reports of the related complications, and a need for further studies on their degradation kinetics. This review focuses on tattoo optical biosensors for monitoring dermal interstitial biomarkers and discusses the clinical advantages and main challenges for in vivo implantation. Tattoo functionalization provides a minimally invasive, reversible, biocompatible, real‐time sensing with long‐term permanence and multiplexing capabilities for the control, diagnosis, and prevention of illness; it enables self‐controlling management by the patient, but also the possibility of sending the records to the doctor.