Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
as a medicine used to oxygenate tissue that is under hypoxic con-
ditions. Due to its small size, the ORMs can be directly injected to
the affected area and act as a temporary generator for oxygen sup-
ply before the problem of vessel blockage is overcome via opera-
tion or other methods. This is seen to be a better option compared
with the use of oxygen-rich fluids as the oxygen supply can be gen-
erated continuously at a constant rate with a considerably higher
concentration for a longer duration. As for this type of application,
the ORMs should be specially designed to be extremely fine in size
and having fast degradation and to be eliminated (microspheres or
the degraded products) from the area to avoid other harmful effects
thatmayariseduetotheirlong-termexistenceatthearea.Withthis
taken into consideration, harmful effects caused by the existence of
microspheres, as pointed out in the previous section, will be elimi-
nated and serve the purpose of supplying oxygen to needed areas,
playing the role of blood.
32.5 Conclusion
Thischapterhasfocusedalmostexclusivelyonthefrontierresearch
trendincurrentbiomaterialdevelopment,whichistheeffortinpro-
ducingORMsfore
cientcellsurvival.Allroundedaspectsconcern-
ing this trend such as the current status, experimental approaches,
and the possible integrations into applications have been discussed.
In order to make the scope more specific, a large section of the
discussion has been made based on real practice, which was the
development of H
2
O
2
-encapsulated PLGA microspheres that gener-
ate oxygen. Several suggestions, potential approaches, and possible
modifications of standard protocols for producing ORMs have been
given based on the authors' opinions and the laboratory observa-
tionsobtainedduring the study.
Currently, there are still a lot of research potentials in the area
ofdevelopingORMs.Theseincludetheresearchofnewconceptsfor
generating oxygen from microspheres and the innovation of a novel
methodology used in the production of microspheres. Besides, the
possible future applications for such smart materials are diverse,
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