Fabrication of Microneedle Molds and Polymer Based Biodegradable Microneedle Patches: A Novel Method

Objective: Microneedleis a micro sized needle-like structure which has the ability to pierce the skin in a non-invasive and painless way. The present research work aims to design microneedle molds in a novel way and fabricate and characterize biodegradable polymer based micro-needle patch utilizing polymer casting. Methods: Fabrication of polymer patch involved two steps, one is to fabricate microneedle array mold and the other is to prepare biodegradable polymeric microneedle patch using the molds. Molds are prepared by manually piercing the mixture of resin and hydrate (emseal) using needles having micro tips and patches are prepared using polymer solution. Characterization of microneedle patch was done using scanning electron microscope and skin piercing ability was understood from histological studies of the rat skin. Results: The micro-needles on the patch were found to be uniform in size and shape, with concentric circular features, The size of the microneedle tip was found to be between 20-50 μm and base around 200 μm and the shape was found to be conical with sharp tip. The micro-needles showed good penetration in to the skin which was observed by the histological studies performed using rat skin. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that the microneedle molds can be prepared using resins and microneedles can be developed using polymer casting method. The developed microneedles showed comparable structural features with those reported in the literature. These microneedles possessed good mechanical strength and can pierce the rat skin