Journal: Science Advances

Article Title: Electronics-free soft robotic minitablet for on-demand gastric molecular sensing and diagnostics in vivo

doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aea3309

Figure Lengend Snippet: ( A ) Schematic illustration (top) and experimental demonstration (bottom) of the pH-responsive hydrogel swelling mechanism. Scale bars, 1 mm. ( B ) Integration of the pH sensor within the SeroTab chamber. The distributed zinc disk inside the hydrogel enhances ultrasonic contrast, enabling detection of hydrogel size changes in response to different pH solutions. ( C ) In vivo verification of ultrasonic detection of SeroTab and the pH sensor in a live rabbit stomach. US images of the long axis (left) and short axis (right) are captured. ( D ) Time-dependent response of a SeroTab when immersed in simulated gastric juice at pH 3 (movie S7). ( E ) Calibration of time-dependent responses of the pH sensor in a 35-μl chamber with solutions of different pH values. Δ L / Δ L 0 ( % ) denotes the swelling ratio. ( F ) Saturated swelling ratio of the pH sensor after immersion in 35 μl and 3 ml of gastric juice at different pH values for 12 hours. Illustrations created by the authors using Adobe Illustrator.

Article Snippet: Following endoscopic verification, we used a US imaging system (EPIQ7c, Philips, The Netherlands) to monitor SeroTab’s movement and status within the stomach.

Techniques: In Vivo