Center for Regenerative Medicine, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
ASAIO J. 2011 Nov-Dec;57(6):533-8. doi: 10.1097/MAT.0b013e318234a3ac.
Blood oxygenators are vital for the critically ill, but their use is limited to the hospital setting. A portable blood oxygenator or a lung assist device for ambulatory or long-term use would greatly benefit patients with chronic lung disease. In this work, a biomimetic blood oxygenator system was developed which consisted of a microfluidic vascular network covered by a gas permeable silicone membrane. This system was used to determine the influence of key microfluidic parameters-channel size, oxygen exposure length, and blood shear rate-on blood oxygenation and carbon dioxide removal. Total gas transfer increased linearly with flow rate, independent of channel size and oxygen exposure length. On average, CO(2) transfer was 4.3 times higher than oxygen transfer. Blood oxygen saturation was also found to depend on the flow rate per channel but in an inverse manner; oxygenation decreased and approached an asymptote as the flow rate per channel increased. These relationships can be used to optimize future biomimetic vascular networks for specific lung applications: gas transfer for carbon dioxide removal in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or oxygenation for premature infants requiring complete lung replacement therapy.
血液氧合器对重症患者至关重要，但它们的使用仅限于医院环境。便携式血液氧合器或用于非卧床或长期使用的肺辅助设备将极大地造福于慢性肺部疾病患者。在这项工作中，开发了一种仿生血液氧合器系统，该系统由微流控血管网络组成，该血管网络由透气硅橡胶膜覆盖。该系统用于确定关键微流控参数（通道尺寸，氧气暴露长度和血液剪切速率）对血液氧合和二氧化碳去除的影响。总气体传递与流速呈线性增加，而与通道尺寸和氧气暴露长度无关。平均而言，CO2 的传递比氧气传递高 4.3 倍。血液氧饱和度也发现取决于每个通道的流速，但呈相反的方式；随着每个通道的流速增加，氧合作用降低并接近渐近线。这些关系可用于为特定的肺部应用优化未来的仿生血管网络：对于慢性阻塞性肺疾病患者的二氧化碳去除的气体传递，或者对于需要完全肺替代治疗的早产儿的氧合。
