Novel swelling/shrinking behaviors of glucose-binding hydrogels and their potential use in a microfluidic insulin delivery system

Hydrogels based on lightly crosslinked poly(methacrylamidophenylboronic acid-co-acylamide) swell monototically at pH 7.4 with exposure to increasing concentrations of glucose. At pH 10 these hydrogels first shrink and then reswell with increasing glucose concentration. A mechanism for these disctinct behaviors is proposed and preliminary results validating this mechanism are presented. A simple microfabricated glucose-sensitive valve based on this hydrogel is described.