Proteomic Characterization of Dermal Interstitial Fluid Extracted Using a Novel Microneedle-Assisted Technique

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Abstract
As commercial wearable fitness devices have gained commercial acceptance, interest in-real time monitoring of an individual’s physiological status using non-invasive techniques has grown. Microneedles have been proposed as a minimally invasive technique for sampling the dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) for clinical monitoring and diagnosis, but little is known about its composition. In this study, dermal ISF was collected using novel microneedle array from three healthy human donors and compared to matching serum and plasma samples. Using a shotgun quantitative proteomic approach, 407 proteins were quantified with at least one unique peptide and of those, 135 proteins were differently expressed at least two-fold. Collectively, these proteins tended to originate from the cytoplasm, membrane bound vesicles, and extracellular vesicular exosomes. Proteomic analysis confirmed previously published work which indicates that ISF is highly similar to both plasma and serum. However, unlike blister-derived ISF, there were less than one percent of proteins uniquely identified in ISF. Taken together, ISF could serve as a non-invasive alternative for blood-derived fluids with potential for real-time monitoring applications.
Funding Information
  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency (189920, CB10434)
  • Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
  • NIH CTSC (UL1TR00449)