An enzyme-modulated oxygen-producing micro-system for regenerative therapeutics

This study suggests the idea of treating oxygen as a drug in a biological environment and demonstrates that it will exhibit a dosage-dependent trend. To accomplish this, a micro-system was fabricated, having hydrogen peroxide as the oxygen-generating source, which was decomposed using catalase, a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms. The relevance of the proposed micro-system was justified using cell viability assays under well-controlled and fixed conditions. This study was performed under two controlled conditions, normoxia and hypoxia, and tests were carried out using three different configurations of samples under each condition: direct addition of H2O2, H2O2 encapsulated with single layer, and H2O2 encapsulated with double layers. This study demonstrates that the elegantly designed micro-system managed to control the decomposition of H2O2 and avoided direct contact with cells, while also maintaining cell viability under a low oxygen environment. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.