Flexible bioelectronic systems with large-scale temperature sensor arrays for monitoring and treatments of localized wound inflammation

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 121; no. 49; p. e2412423121
• Main Authors: Liu, Junhan, Li, Zhongzheng, Sun, Mubai, Zhou, Lianjie, Wu, Xiaojun, Lu, Yifei, Shao, Yuting, Liu, Chang, Huang, Ningge, Hu, Bofan, Wu, Zhongyuan, You, Chunyu, Li, Lizhu, Wang, Ming, Tao, Ling, Di, Zengfeng, Sheng, Xing, Mei, Yongfeng, Song, Enming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 03.12.2024
• Subjects: Animals; Biosensing Techniques - instrumentation; Biosensing Techniques - methods; Humans; Hydrogels - chemistry; Inflammation - therapy; Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation; Monitoring, Physiologic - methods; Physical Sciences; Rats; Temperature; Wearable Electronic Devices; Wound Healing; temperature spatial mapping; in situ therapy; wound inflammation; closed-loop management; remote care
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2412423121

Continuous monitoring and closed-loop therapy of soft wound tissues is of particular interest in biomedical research and clinical practices. An important focus is on the development of implantable bioelectronics that can measure time-dependent temperature distribution related to localized inflammation over large areas of wound and offer in situ treatment. Existing approaches such as thermometers/thermocouples provide limited spatial resolution, inapplicable to a wearable/implantable format. Here, we report a conformal, scalable device package that integrates a flexible amorphous silicon–based temperature sensor array and drug-loaded hydrogel for the healing process. This system can enable the spatial temperature mapping at submillimeter resolution and high sensitivity of 0.1 °C, for dynamically localizing the inflammation regions associated with temperature change, automatically followed with heat-triggered drug delivery from hydrogel triggered by wearable infrared light-emitting-diodes. We establish the operational principles experimentally and computationally and evaluate system functionalities with a wide range of targets including live animal models and human subjects. As an example of medical utility, this system can yield closed-loop monitoring/treatments by tracking of temperature distribution over wound areas of live rats, in designs that can be integrated with automated wireless control. These findings create broad utilities of these platforms for clinical diagnosis and advanced therapy for wound healthcare.