A novel oxygen tension programmable microfluidic system (oPROMs) for in vitro cell biology studies

Creating different oxygen tensions at a microscale level can be beneficial for studies that investigate oxygen-dependent cellular behavior. Here we present a novel, highly flexible, oxygen tension programmable microfluidic system (oPROMs) capable of generating various uniform oxygen tensions without using complex device structures and multiple gas interconnections. The oPROMs device is coated with a mixture of Glucose oxidase (GOX) and Catalase (CAT) immobilized in a chitosan matrix and then covered by membranes with different thickness. The high glucose medium used in cell culture interacts with the enzyme layer and produces a steady hypoxia inside the wells. Based on different combination of GOX and CAT, oxygen tensions from 0% to 7% were produced.