This term is also written in different notions such as: micro needling or micro-needling.
The concept of microneedling became popular in 2004/2005 after the invention and the worldwide commercialisation of the Dermaroller®. The term microneedling describes a dynamic process when microneedles, arranged on a drum shape instrument, are passed (rolled) through the skin. Earlier the unspecific procedure was called “needling”.
Puncturing or penetrating the skin seems to be as old as mankind. In order to open an abscess for free puss flow it was punctured with a sharp injection needle. Its tip is sharply grinded and acts traumatically in form of tiny cuts.
In history of civilisation needling is known in form of body decoration – TATTOOING. It is thousands of years old (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo ). With this technique colour pigments, in earlier days charcoal, later ink, and today synthetic colours are pierced into the skin. It started with sharp, hardened wooden needles that transport the colour agent on its surface into deeper skin layers. Today it is done with electrical driven needles of tattoo guns. The needle penetration depth is about 1.2 mm. Non-traumatic sterile needles with round and sharp tips are commonly used.
In the Nineties the Canadian surgeon Camirand used tattoo-guns without colour pigments to treat operation scars after plastic surgery. His intention was to perforate scars to take off their tension. They became softer and pigmentation sometimes came back. This post-operative microneedling technique soon disappeared from the operation rooms because it was a tedious job without income.
In acupuncture the notion of microneedling did not prevail. The reason most likely is, that these needles are set “statically” for a certain time.
In the Eighties needling was discovered again, but for a totally different purpose: To overcome the skin’s barrier for the enhancement of active ingredients, mainly for drugs. It was discovered that certain drugs were far better absorbed and more evenly distributed in the metabolism when enhanced percutaneously, instead of systemically by tablets or injections.The terms percutaneous or transdermal delivery describes the method of drug enhancement through the skin’s surface. In this case very thin metal plates made from steel or titanium are slit punched to form fine needles, with a length of approximately 0.1 mm. A porous drug carrier is placed on top and covered with a plaster. The fine needles open the skin’s upper must layer, called stratum corneum (its thickness is only one hundredth of a millimetre). Once this barrier is penetrated the drug diffuses into deeper skin layers by the concentration gradient and finally enters the metabolism. The application of such fine microneedle arrays is painless since the nerve receptors are located below the epidermis (facial thickness in average: 0.15mm). As micro arrays are placed on a single point, this application is considered as a “static” needling.
The German inventor Horst Liebl looked for a new and considerable faster way of
microneedling. He integrated nearly 200 non-traumatic microneedles of medical grade into a drum shaped device with 20 mm in width and diameter. Now the previous “static” needling was transformed into a “dynamic” microneedling process to treat larger skin areas in no time. He called his invention Dermaroller® and patented and trademarked it in 2000.
The Universities of Marburg and Jena, both in Germany, and the US Mercer University in Atlanta so far wrote seven independent articles about the efficacy of transdermal drug delivery with the Dermaroller®.
Histological findings of skin tissue that was microneedled with 0.5 to 1.5 mm long needles (according to facial skin thickness) revealed that they stimulated massive growth of elastin- and collagen fibres (in some cases up to 1,000%). The inventor called this form of microneedling COLLAGEN-INDUCTION-THERAPY (CIT in short).
Since microneedles, regardless their lengths, penetrate the skin’s surface invasively in order to influence the body’s metabolism or to change its anatomy and/or physiology, e.g. to reduce scars and hyper pigmentation, a Dermaroller® or any other needling instrument must be registered and approved as a” medical device” according to US and European regulation and must be CE-marked before it is placed on the market.
For more information see: http://www.dermaroller.de