Partial Drug Delivery to the End of a Tree-Like Branched Microfluidic Channel

Abstract

Drug delivery through the lungs is efficient. Therefore, some techniques to deliver drugs more efficiently deep into the lungs by powdering the drug as small as possible and applying vibration to the air the patients breathe in, are under development. On the other hand, this method can cause side effects because the drug diffuses the whole area of the lung. In this study, we confirmed whether it is possible to transport small particles from the entrance to the arbitrary end of a tree-like channel by applying vibration to a part of the end of the branched channel, by using a microfluidic device.