Researchers have developed a biosensing tattoo ink that reacts to sugar in the blood to help diabetics control their conditions.

The colour-changing ink turns the body's surface into an 'interactive display' to alert diabetics when their blood sugar is too low or high.

When blood sugar goes up, the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown in real-time, a colour change that reverses when blood sugar drops.

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‹ Slide me › Researchers have developed a tattoo ink that reacts to sugar in the blood to help diabetics. When blood sugar goes up, the glucose-sensing ink changes from blue (left) to brown (right), and vice-versa. Pictured is the ink being tested on a skin model

HOW IT WORKS The ink senses changes to the body's interstitial fluid - the liquid that surrounds tissue cells in the body. When the glucose sensing tattoo ink senses a change in blood sugar levels, it changes colour. If blood sugar is low, it changes from brown to blue, and if high, it changes from blue to brown. The tattoos could one day act as a non-invasive method for diabetics to control their condition. The researchers also developed inks that sense salt and pH levels. Advertisement

The ink acts as a biosensor that reads interstitial fluids - the liquids that surround tissue cells in the body.

Other biosensing tattoo inks developed by the team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, monitor the body's salt and pH levels.

The salt sensing inks, which track the mineral by measuring sodium levels, fluoresce under UV light, shifting to an intense green when high salt levels are detected.

The pH sensing inks respond to alkalinity and change from pink to purple as it increases.

The researchers suggest that their tattoo inks, which they say are currently just at the 'proof of concept' stage, could offer new ways of monitoring the body.

For diabetics, the glucose sensing ink provides a way to track blood sugar levels without having to prick the skin and take a blood sample every few hours.

One biosensing tattoo could tell a diabetic what dose of insulin they needed to re-balance their blood sugar at any time.

The colour-changing ink turns the body's surface into an 'interactive display' to alert diabetics when their blood sugar is too low or high

WHAT IS DIABETES? In both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the body struggles to healthily maintain its own blood sugar, or 'glucose', levels. Sufferers have a high risk of heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, kidney damage, and fatigue. To combat the condition diabetics have to frequently measure their blood glucose levels and inject a corresponding dose of the hormone insulin. Insulin helps the body to take glucose into tissue cells by opening up membrane channels. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that causes the insulin producing cells in the pancreas to be destroyed, preventing the body from being able to produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body fails to use insulin properly - known to scientists as insulin resistance - and can be caused by obesity and a bad diet. Advertisement

'The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner metabolic processes in a shape of a tattoo,' the MIT Media Lab researchers wrote in a blog post.

'It could be used for applications in continuously monitoring such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.'

It is not the first time a group of MIT researchers have created a skin-based technology.

This image shows the colour changes of each biosensing ink. Other tattoo inks developed by the team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, monitor the body's salt (a) and pH levels (b). The researchers' glucose-sensing ink is shown in column c

The salt sensing inks, which track the mineral by measuring sodium levels, fluoresce under UV light (pictured). The ink shifts to an intense green when high salt levels are detected

Last year scientists announced DuoSkin - temporary tattoos that can are sensitive to touch and can be used to control electronic devices like smartphones.

Using gold leaf, the temporary transfers can be used as touch sensitive trackpads or to transmit information to a smartphone.

For example, swiping left or right on the tattoo could be used to scroll through an album of pictures.

Last year, an MIT team used gold and silver leaf transfers to create temporary transfer tattoos that can be used as trackpads or to transmit information to a smartphone (pictured)

The process uses gold leaf, like that used in baking or adorning picture frames, to create ‘three classes’ of device.

'We believe that in the future, on-skin electronics will no longer be black-boxed and mystified,' MIT researchers wrote on their website at the time.

'Instead they will converge towards the user friendliness, extensibility, and aesthetics of body decorations.'