NO-Generating Coats for Subcutaneous Glucose Sensors

These implantable sensors can be used for monitoring diabetes patients.

In a research program now in progress, polymeric materials that catalyze the generation of nitric oxide (NO) at low concentrations are being developed and tested for utility as coatings on surgically implantable amperometric glucose sensors. Heretofore, efforts to develop subcutaneous sensors for real-time clinical monitoring of glucose concentrations in diabetic patients have been stymied by inflammatory/foreign-body responses to implantation of sensors. The present research program follows from an observation, made in a related prior research program, that local generation of NO at low concentrations enhances the biocompatibility of implanted sensors by reducing inflammatory responses.