Using oxygen-consuming thermoset plastics to generate hypoxic conditions in microfluidic devices for potential cell culture applications

The precise control of the oxygen concentration in a cellular environment allows the study of cells under physiologically relevant conditions. This work reports on a novel method for the generation of reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations in microfluidic chambers for cell- and organ-on-chip applications. Using a thermoset polymeric material (OSTEMER ^TM), which effectively scavenges dissolved oxygen (DO), microfluidic devices have been fabricated where oxygen was rapidly depleted from the microfluidic chamber. It is shown that hypoxic and anaerobic conditions can be generated through the inherent scavenging property of the material itself, without any additional chemical additives.