Oxygen Control For Bioreactors And In-vitro Cell Assays

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is an important parameter in biomedical and cell-culture applications. Several studies have found cell survival and function to be intimately linked to oxygen concentration. Laminar flow, as observed in microfluidic devices, provides an ideal environment to manipulate and control concentration gradients. In this paper we demonstrate the first characterization of integrated fluorescence-based oxygen sensors for DO measurement within a cell-culture bioreactor device. Solid-state PtOEPK/PS sensor patterns were integrated into the PDMS-based bioreactor and calibrated for detection of DO concentration with a superimposed layer of collagen and Ishikawa human endometrial cancer cells. The sensor signal of the layer subjacent to the cells was found to follow a Stern-Volmer model and the intensity ratio was measured to I0/I100 = 3.9 after 3 days in culture. The device provides a novel tool for the control and spatially-resolved measurement of oxygen levels in cellular assays and cell-culture applications