Development of self-care textile wearables with thermally stimulated drug delivery function via biological and physical investigations

Abstract

Previous studies have examined and verified the drug loading and releasing functionality from the interior channels of hollow fibers. An integrated design for self-care textile wearables with a thermally stimulated drug delivery function was proposed. To progress the in-depth development of the proposed self-care wearables, physical and biological investigations, including i) liquid release with thermal stimulation and ii) drug release upon thermal stimulation, were conducted. Physical investigation revealed that the concentration of dyes released from the heated specimens increased with higher temperature during the initial first hour of delivery. Moreover, higher cytotoxic effect could be induced with drugs delivered through heated specimens under higher thermal stimulated energy through biological examination. These results set up milestones for demonstrating the influence of thermal energy on different therapeutic requirements, such as rapid-onset transdermal medication.