Oxygen Generating Materials for Retaining Muscle Morphology and Function

Introduction Loss of functional skeletal muscle due to congenital and acquired conditions produces a physiological deficit for which there is still no effective clinical treatment. Tissue engineering of skeletal muscle in vitro for functional tissue replacement in vivo may provide a potential therapeutic solution to this unmet medical need. One major limiting factor to this approach is that skeletal muscle requires an adequate source of oxygen, one that is usually provided by a vascular network. However, in engineered tissue, this oxygen supply is not initially present. Particulate oxygen generators (POGs) may provide a solution. These particles have the ability to release oxygen when placed in aqueous environments, and have been shown to aid in providing oxygen in an ischemic skin flap model in mice. We hypothesized that a POG biomaterial could provide a supplemental source of oxygen for skeletal muscle in vitro which was capable of sustaining muscle morphology and maintaining function.