Scientists Suggest Massaging Vaccines Into the Skin Could Eliminate Needle Injections

• by Rishma Parpia

• Published November 17, 2025
• Future Vaccines  
•  

• Scientists in France and the United Kingdom are investigating an alternative to traditional needle-based vaccines, one that uses mechanical stimulation of the skin to trigger an immune response. The research team, led by Élodie Segura, PhD, at the Institut Curie and Inserm in France, along with researchers at King’s College London, England, examined whether vaccines could be applied like a cream to the skin and then massaged in for about 20 minutes to activate strong antibody immune responses that are stimulated when skin is stretched.

  Preliminary findings show that topical vaccine application combined with mechanical stimulation (massage) or stretching of the skin using a device can produce an immune response in mice that is equal to or stronger than the response generated by standard injection.¹

  Traditional vaccines are typically administered through intramuscular injection, which delivers vaccine components deep into muscle tissue. However, the researchers say that the skin contains a dense network of immune cells, suggesting that it may serve as an effective stimulation site for initiating the body’s defense responses.²

  The researchers focused on whether mechanical manipulation of the skin could increase permeability and allow vaccine antigens to penetrate more effectively. Mechanical stretching of the skin temporarily opened hair follicles and permitted larger molecules and microbial compounds to enter deeper layers of tissue.³

  Mechanical Stimulation Activates the Skin’s Immune Response

  In laboratory experiments, the scientists used a device to stretch skin samples from both mice and humans. This stretching reorganized collagen structures and opened hair follicles, making the skin more receptive to external molecules. The stretching alone also released signals that drew immune cells to the area and started the early steps of adaptive immunity, which is the part of the immune system that learns to recognize specific threats and builds long-term protection.⁴

  The study found that stretching the skin switched on many genes involved in the body’s immune response and caused dendritic cells, which help detect and challenge the immune system to mount an antibody response, to move toward the lymph nodes, where immune responses are organized. This happened even before any vaccine was added, showing that the skin stretching alone can start activating the immune system.⁵

  Stuart Jones, PhD at King’s College London said:

  Just stretching the skin was more effective than delivering the same vaccine with a needle, which shows the practical relevance of this immune activation. This new pathway into the skin could be used in lots of different ways—we showed its potential for vaccine delivery, but we’re also starting to think about delivering cell therapies and whether it could be used for diagnostics.⁶

  The researchers then tested the technique in living mice by applying an influenza A (H1N1) vaccine to the skin during the stretching procedure. Mice treated with the skin-stretching method developed higher levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies compared with mice that received the same vaccine by traditional intramuscular injection.⁷

  An important finding from the study is that the immune response occurred without the use of an adjuvant, a substance often added to vaccines to trigger immune activation. This suggests that the mechanical stress created by stretching the skin contributed directly to immune response stimulation, potentially simplifying vaccine formulation.⁸

  Challenges and Potential Safety Concerns

  The researchers emphasize that significant challenges must be addressed before this method can be used in humans. Mouse skin differs from human skin in structure and thickness, and human trials are needed to determine whether the same immune responses can be reliably produced.⁹

  The technique also raises safety considerations because stretching temporarily increases skin permeability, allergens, pollutants, or other unintended substances may be able to penetrate deeper into the skin, so caution is advised as research continues.¹⁰ The researchers noted that previous research hypothesized that infants who are frequently massaged could be more prone to developing food allergies, theorizing that increased skin permeability might allow allergens to enter the body more easily.¹¹

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