abstract
Manufacturing macroscale cell-laden architectures is one of the biggest challenges faced nowadays in the domain of tissue engineering. Such living constructs, in fact, pose strict requirements for nutrients and oxygen supply that can hardly be addressed through simple diffusion in vitro or without a functional vasculature in vivo. In this context, in the last two decades, a substantial amount of work has been carried out to develop smart materials that could actively provide oxygen-release to contrast local hypoxia in large-size constructs. This review provides an overview of the currently available oxygen-releasing materials and their synthesis and mechanism of action, highlighting their capacities under in vitro tissue cultures and in vivo contexts. Additionally, we also showcase an emerging concept, herein termed as living materials as releasing systems, which relies on the combination of biomaterials with photosynthetic microorganisms, namely algae, in an unconventional attempt to supply the damaged or re-growing tissue with the necessary supply of oxygen. We envision that future advances focusing on tissue microenvironment regulated oxygen-supplying materials would unlock an untapped potential for generating a repertoire of anatomic scale, living constructs with improved cell survival, guided differentiation, and tissue-specific biofunctionality.
subject category
Materials Science, Biomaterials
authors
Agarwal, T; Kazemi, S; Costantini, M; Perfeito, F; Correia, CR; Gaspar, V; Montazeri, L; De Maria, C; Mano, JF; Vosough, M; Makvandi, P; Maiti, TK
our authors
Clara R. Correia
Researcher
Francisca Gonçalves Perfeito
PhD Student
João Mano
Vice Director
Vítor Gaspar
Assistant Professoracknowledgements
TA would like to acknowledge the INSPIRE scheme, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, for providing the fellowship (DST/INSPIRE/03/2015/003251). Graphical abstract was created with BioRender.com. The authors acknowledge project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. This study was also supported by National Science Centre Poland (NCN) within SONATA 14 project No. 2018/31/D/ST8/03647 to MC.