Title : Towards photosynthetic explants as local oxygen delivery systems for tissue regeneration
Abstract:
Oxygen is necessary for tissue regeneration as it plays a key role in metabolism, immune response, and protein synthesis. Thus, the delivery of oxygen to wounds is an active field of research. Among others, hyperbaric therapy has been evaluated for wound oxygenation and, more recently, in vitro, and in vivo studies have shown that photosynthetic biomaterials are a promising approach to deliver oxygen in a vascular independent manner. Due to its physical and chemical properties, plants have been historically used to improve tissue regeneration, but their capabilities to produce and deliver oxygen in situ have not yet been explored for wound healing. In this work, the influence of different environmental conditions in the oxygen releasing capacity of Marchantia polymorpha explants was characterized under human physiological conditions. Additionally, the biocompatibility of such explants as well as their capacity to fulfill the metabolic requirements of living vertebrate system was studied using a zebrafish larvae model. Here we found that the explants were able to produce oxygen under human physiological conditions under light/dark cycles of 15 mins. Moreover, co-incubation with zebrafish larvae demonstrates that M. polymorpha explants are not toxic, as viability of the larvae was not compromised. Finally, co-incubation assays also demonstrate that, under the appropriate illumination, the explants can exceed the oxygen demand of 96 hours post fecundation zebrafish larvae. Our proof of concept results suggest that photosynthetic explants could be used as biocompatible local oxygen delivery systems for wound healing and tissue regeneration. Nevertheless, further studies should be conducted in order to confirm the safety and efficacy of M. polymorpha to promote wound healing in vivo.