Measuring Blood Sugar from Tears

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] Domestic researchers have developed a method to measure glucose through tears. It is expected to open the way to easily measure blood sugar without drawing blood.

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology announced on the 22nd that a research team led by Professor Jeong Euiheon of the Department of Biomedical Engineering developed a device that can determine glucose concentration by analyzing the light of a special contact lens that changes color in response to glucose.

This device measures tear glucose concentration by analyzing the reflection spectrum of the contact lens, which changes according to glucose concentration when visible light is shone. The research team identified the wavelength range where the correlation between the reflection spectrum and glucose concentration is prominent through spectral preprocessing. They then created a model to confirm glucose concentration in tears, enabling the determination of glucose levels. The research team also verified the correlation between blood and tear glucose concentrations using a diabetic mouse model.

Professor Jeong Euiheon said, "The significance of this achievement lies in demonstrating that glucose concentration in tears can be measured using a new optical method and that blood glucose concentration can be predicted through this." He added, "With further optimization, it is expected to become a non-invasive glucose measurement method that can replace the existing invasive measurement methods." Currently, devices used for blood sugar measurement employ invasive methods such as blood sampling.

The research results were published in Scientific Reports, a sister journal of Nature.

Spectral system for predicting tear glucose through reflectance measurement. Figure (a) shows an image of nanoparticle contact lenses that change color upon reacting with glucose. Figure (b) is a diagram illustrating the structure of the reflectance spectral system.

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