Engineering Modular, Oxygen-Generating Microbeads for the In Situ Mitigation of Cellular Hypoxia.

Insufficient oxygenation is a key obstacle in the design of clinically scalable tissue-engineered grafts. In this work, an oxygen-generating composite material, termed OxySite, is created through the encapsulation of calcium peroxide (CaO ) within polydimethylsiloxane and formulated into microbeads for ease in tissue integration. Key material parameters of reactant loading, porogen addition, microbead size, and an outer rate-limiting layer are modulated to characterize oxygen generation kinetics and their suitability for cellular applications.