Gelatin-based Ingestible Impedance Sensor to Evaluate Gastrointestinal Epithelial Barriers.

Low-profile and transient ingestible electronics capsules for diagnostics and therapeutics could replace widely used yet invasive procedures such as endoscopies. Several gastrointestinal diseases such as reflux disease, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and eosinophilic esophagitis result in increased intercellular dilation in epithelial barriers. Currently, the primary method of diagnosing and monitoring epithelial barrier integrity is via endoscopic tissue biopsies followed by histological imaging. In this work, w e propose a gelatin-based ingestible electronic capsule that can monitor epithelial barriers via electrochemical impedance measurements. Toward this end, w e describe materials-specific transfer printing methodologies to manufacture soft gelatin-based electronics, an in vitro synthetic disease model to validate impedance-based sensing, and tests of capsules using ex vivo using porcine esophageal tissue. The technologies described herein could advances next generation of oral diagnostic devices that reduce invasiveness and improve convenience for patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.