Development of an alginate/TiO2-based microfluidic biosystem for chrono-sampling and sensing of glucose in artificial sweat

Glucose is an analyte of great importance, both in the clinical and sports fields. As an alternative to standard blood analysis, sweat arises as an easily accessible, non-invasive biofluid, as well as a great candidate to monitor human health and sport performance of athletes. However, there is a current need for the fabrication of low cost, easy to use technologies capable of sequential analysis of sweat biomarkers at different times. In this research, we developed a chrono-sampling microfluidic platform integrated with an alginate/TiO2 biosystem for sweat glucose determination. Glucose concentrations ranging from 10 to 1000 µM in artificial sweat were detected and quantified, both in a bead format and in the device, where the whole system was calibrated and verified. The PDMS microfluidic platform allowed chrono-sampling over more than 42 min. This research is oriented towards the development of a miniaturized device for fast analysis at the point and place of need. The integration of the chrono-sampling capacity opens the possibility for a continuous monitoring of sweat biomarkers during exercise, allowing a personalized-oriented training to improve the performance of athletes.