Mathematical modeling of myoglobin facilitated transport of oxygen in devices containing myoglobin-expressing cells

Low pO2 is perhaps the most significant factor in artificial pancreas failure. In these environments, not only is the beta cell production of insulin reduced, but the cell death rate is also significantly higher. Mathematical models are developed to test the feasibility of facilitated oxygen transport in enhancing O2 flux to genetically engineered cells in a bioartificial device such as a pancreas. For this device, it is proposed that beta cells be genetically engineered to express myoglobin throughout the cell. In addition, the significance of including myoglobin throughout the alginate matrix present to provide immuno-protection for the transplanted cells is considered. The mathematical analysis predicts that myoglobin facilitated oxygen transport has the potential of increasing the oxygen concentration at the centre of a cluster of cells (islet) with an effective radius of 100 μm by 50%. These theoretical models for myoglobin facilitated oxygen transport with homogeneous Michaelis–Menten consumption also indicate that including myoglobin in the alginate gel would beneficially improve the flux of oxygen to the transplanted cells.