Table 1.

Pharmacokinetic parameters of hGH delivery to rats.

	Group[g]
	1	2	3	4	5
Administered dose (μg)[a]	169 ± 10	148 ± 5	162[h]	164 ± 14	167 ± 15
Cmax (ng/ml)[b]	60 ± 12	12 ± 5*	31 ± 15*	49 ± 12	68 ± 7
tmax (h)[c]	0.7 ± 0.3	0.7 ± 0.3	0.8 ± 0.3	0.6 ± 0.2	0.7 ± 0.3
t1/2 (h)[d]	1.2 ± 0.2	0.9 ± 0.3	1.4 ± 0.1	1.1 ± 0.2	1.1 ± 0.3
AUC (h·ng/ml)[e]	174 ± 35	20 ± 13*	101 ± 49*	120 ± 28*	181 ± 26
BA (%)[f]	100 ± 20	13 ± 8*	61 ± 29*	71 ± 17*	106 ± 15

^[a]The applied dose was measured with ELISA (n=4).

^[b]C_max is the maximum hGH concentration.

^[c]t_max is the time recorded as the peak concentration of hGH, C_max

^[d]t_1/2 is half-life of hGH concentration relative to C_max.

^[e]Area under the curve (AUC) was calculated from Fig. 3 using the trapezoid method.

^[f]Bioavailability (BA) was calculated as (AUC_group/Dose_group)/(AUC_{group 1.}/Dose_{group 1})

^[g]The group numbers are the same as in Figure 3: (1) SC injection, (2) CMC microneedle patch, (3) SC injection of reconstituted CMC patch (after 15 months storage), (4) CMC/trehalose microneedle patch, (5) SC injection of reconstituted CMC/trehalose patch.

^[h]The Group 3 dose is the original amount of hGH encapsulated in the microneedles on dry basis, not the amount of active hGH after storage.

^[*]Significantly different from Group 1 (Student's t-test, p < 0.05)