Agarose-based structured optical fibre
Agarose-based structured optical fibre
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-020-64103-3
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发表时间：
2020-04-27
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Cordeiro, Cristiano M. B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fujiwara, Eric;Cabral, Thiago D.;Cordeiro, Cristiano M. B.
生物相容性和可再吸收的光纤作为有前途的技术出现在体内应用中，如成像、用于光疗和光遗传学的光递送、和局部药物递送，以及用于生化传感，其中探针可以被植入，然后被生物体完全吸收。已经报道了基于玻璃、水凝胶和丝的生物可降解波导，但是这些设备中的大多数依赖于复杂的制造过程。在这个意义上，本文提出了一种新的结构的光学纤维制成的琼脂糖，一种透明的，可食用的材料，用于培养基和组织工程。通过将食品级琼脂倒入具有堆叠棒的模具中，形成被气孔包围的固体芯，其中折射率和纤维几何形状可以分别通过选择琼脂糖溶液组成和模具设计来定制，从而获得纤维。除了相对于其他水凝胶波导在633 nm处表现出实际的透射率之外，还通过检测由于琼脂溶胀/脱水引起的体积变化或通过将流体插入气孔来调制透射光来验证光纤的化学传感。因此，所提出的基于琼脂糖的结构化光纤是一种易于制造的、多功能的技术，具有用于医学成像和体内生化传感的可能应用。
Biocompatible and resorbable optical fibres emerge as promising technologies for in vivo applications like imaging, light delivery for phototherapy and optogenetics, and localised drug-delivery, as well as for biochemical sensing, wherein the probe can be implanted and then completely absorbed by the organism. Biodegradable waveguides based on glasses, hydrogels, and silk have been reported, but most of these devices rely on complex fabrication procedures. In this sense, this paper proposes a novel structured optical fibre made of agarose, a transparent, edible material used in culture media and tissue engineering. The fibre is obtained by pouring food-grade agar into a mould with stacked rods, forming a solid core surrounded by air holes in which the refractive index and fibre geometry can be tailored by choosing the agarose solution composition and mould design, respectively. Besides exhibiting practical transmittance at 633nm in relation to other hydrogel waveguides, the fibre is also validated for chemical sensing either by detecting volume changes due to agar swelling/dehydration or modulating the transmitted light by inserting fluids into the air holes. Therefore, the proposed agarose-based structured optical fibre is an easy-to-fabricate, versatile technology with possible applications for medical imaging and in vivo biochemical sensing.