Localized oscillation and resonance of microbubbles as drug carrier agents

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23484
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0301:Mechanics of materials, production engineering, design engineering, fluid engineering, thermal engineering, mechanical dynamics, robotics, aerospace engineering, marine and maritime engineering, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: SUGITA Naohiro 東京工業大学, 科学技術創成研究院, 助教 (80852318)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: マイクロバブル / 共振現象 / 気泡力学 / 超音波 / 放出制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The disruption rate of the polymer-shelled microbubbles (microcapsules) subject to ultrasound irradiation was measured experimentally from optical microscopic observation, which enables one to study bubble cloud oscillation in controlled drug release application. Ultrasonically disrupted microcapsules were optically visualized at high spatial resolution by using a planar micro-chamber. The disruption rate was calculated based on particle analysis of the recorded image as a function of size distribution and the number concentration of the microcapsule cloud.

Free Research Field

振動工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で提案した気泡群の実験的解析手法により，音波照射を受けたマイクロカプセル群を高解像度かつ広範囲に可視化し，音波照射領域に含まれる全てのカプセルの粒子径分布と局所的な数濃度分布を定量化することが可能となった．粒子径と空間分布はカプセル群の崩壊挙動を支配する重要なパラメータであることが実験的に示された．気泡群の連成振動は，薬剤の局所送達応用にとどまらず，超音波気泡を援用した治療・診断技術の基礎現象であり，群の共振現象の利用にとって重要な知見を得たと言える．