Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes as Potential Oxygen Delivery Vehicles in Tissue Engineering

The success of engineered tissues has been limited, in part, by the inability to deliver sufficient oxygen to the growing constructs due to the low solubility of oxygen in culture media. In this work we have utilized cyclodextrin inclusion complexes (CD: ICs) with perfluoroperhydrophenanthrene (PFP) as oxygen carriers to enhance oxygen delivery to cells seeded on 3D scaffolds. The CD:ICs were successfully embedded in both biostable and biodegradable scaffolds, poly(carbonate urethane) (PCU) and polycaprolactone (PCL), respectively, demonstrating the versatility of the approach and its potential to be applied to different materials. Electrospinning was used as the scaffold fabrication technique, and it was possible to optimize the solution concentration and electrospinning conditions in order to fabricate 3D fibrous mats with appropriate morphology and average fiber diameters within the acceptable range for tissue engineering applications. Dissolved oxygen increased significantly in the presence of PFP and CD:IC when compared to a PBS control at concentrations as low as 1%, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach. Furthermore, dissolved oxygen in scaffolds modified by CD:IC was significantly higher than control scaffolds after incubation periods of 5 days for PCU and 3 days for PCL. The dissolved oxygen concentration remained significantly higher over the remainder of the 14 day incubation period. Taken together, our data suggests that CD:ICs prepared with perfluorocarbons could be used as oxygen carriers to enhance oxygen delivery to tissue engineered constructs.