Microbubble Suspensions Prepared via Electrohydrodynamic Jetting Process

In this work, a co-axial electrohydrodynamic jetting system was reported to manufacture Microbubble Ultrasound Contrast Agents (mUCA) in the aim of fundamentally changing the way of drugs and genes attached to the microbubbles, hereto strongly enhance the efficiency of microbubbles as drug and gene carrier. Co-axial electrospray method has a high degree of quality control over size simply by changing the properties of the coating liquids and the operating parameters. The mixture of glycerol and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 were used as the microbubbles shell material. Compared with the glycerol/air microbubbles, the addition of PEG 400 has dramatically reduced the microbubbles size and also strongly increased the microbubbles life time, therefore, it can greatly improve the microbubbles stability. This method has shed a light on realizing the microbubbles as drug delivery vehicle and gene therapy to a potential clinical use.