Regulation of Oxygen Level and Pervaporation in Microfluidic Devices

Published

October 13, 2011

Author(s)

Peter C. Thomas, Srinivasa R. Raghavan, Samuel Forry

Abstract

Oxygen level plays a critical role in maintaining cell homeostasis. Misregulation of oxygen levels in cell culture have been shown to impact cell growth, death and differentiation. As such, proper management of oxygen level is required in cell based assays. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) based microfluidic devices are gas permeable and offer the advantage of fast and accurate oxygen regulation compared to conventional incubators. However, maintaining proper gas levels requires continuous gas flow which leads to pervaporation and change in solute concentration in cell culture medium. In the present study, we demonstrate an alternative method to on-chip oxygen control. Instead of gas, we use liquid with different dissolved oxygen content to regulate oxygen level. Gas exchanger allows liquid to equilibrate with controlled composition gas prior to entering the device. This method of oxygen control also mitigated pervaporation effects compared to gas flow. Finally, we demonstrate that oxygen levels measured using an integrated oxygen sensor, match finite element model results.

Citation

Lab on A Chip

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/ac202300g

Local Download

Keywords

microfluidics, oxygen, PDMS, gradient, pervaporation

Citation

Thomas, P. , Raghavan, S. and Forry, S. (2011), Regulation of Oxygen Level and Pervaporation in Microfluidic Devices, Lab on A Chip, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/ac202300g, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907987 (Accessed May 27, 2026)

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