Abstract
Hypoxic microenvironment affects cell fate, and regulates various physiological and pathological phenomena. We designed a microfluidic device to control oxygen tension for three-dimensional cell culture. A polycarbonate (PC) film was embedded in the device to overcome oxygen diffusion from the top surface. Numerical simulations were performed to investigate changes of oxygen tension upon varying the media and gas flow rates. In addition, oxygen tension created based on the computational optimization was validated by using a ruthenium-coated oxygen-sensing glass cover slip. The computational results revealed that there was the optimum combination of the flow rates of media and gas to control oxygen tension, showing establishments of a low uniform oxygen tension (<3%) or an oxygen gradient. The experimental results agreed well with the corresponding computational results.
