Hanyang University's Department of Biotechnology Professor Dong-Yoon Lee's research team announced on the 31st that they have developed an innovative 'self-breathing oxygen production platform' that can stably and spontaneously supply oxygen in the body for a long period of time by combining plant-derived chloroplasts and special peptides.
This technology is expected to provide a major turning point in the fields of cell transplantation, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine by overcoming the short-lived nature of existing oxygen-producing materials and the problems of generating active oxygen, and by suggesting a new oxygen supply method that can promote cell survival and treat various diseases.
Oxygen-producing materials are especially essential in cell transplantation and tissue engineering treatments. Cell transplantation is effective in treating diseases such as hormone deficiency, but sufficient oxygen supply is required for the survival of transplanted cells. However, existing oxygen-producing materials can only supply oxygen for a short period of time and can generate active oxygen, which can be harmful to cells and tissues. Some technologies have limitations in that they are not suitable for long-term oxygen supply because they require external stimuli such as light, heat, and electricity.
Professor Lee Dong-yoon's research team combined chloroplasts, which produce oxygen, with chloroplast-transit-peptide (CTP), a peptide that interacts with them, to maximize the structural stability and oxygen production capacity of chloroplasts. CTP promotes the expression of photosynthetic genes in chloroplasts, allowing them to produce oxygen stably for a long period of time even in environments without light. In addition, the biocompatible polymer alginate was used to enable a stable and continuous supply of oxygen in the body.
As a result of applying the self-breathing oxygen production platform to insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells, it was successful in improving diabetic symptoms by maintaining cell function for more than 100 days even in a hypoxic environment. In addition, it demonstrated a long-term cell protection effect by reducing fibrosis and immune rejection reactions that can occur during cell transplantation, and this technology has enabled long-term support of cell survival rate and function in tissue engineering and cell therapy.
Professor Lee Dong-yoon said, "This study is the world's first case of developing a platform that can self-supply oxygen for more than 100 days even in a lightless environment by utilizing chloroplasts as an oxygen-producing material," and "This technology can open up various clinical applications in the fields of cell transplantation, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine." The results of this study have the potential to be utilized in various fields where oxygen is essential, such as artificial blood, organ extraction and preservation agents, large-scale microbial and cell culture, human stem cell treatment, and artificial organs.
This study was conducted with the support of the Mid-career Researcher Support Project, Basic Research Laboratory Project, and the Inter-ministerial Regenerative Medicine Technology Development Project of the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the research paper 「Oxygenating respiratoid biosystem for therapeutic cell transplantation」 was published on October 23 in the international academic journal 「Nature Communications」(IF=14.2). The research team is also reviewing the possibility of commercialization in cooperation with the advanced bio startup 'Ilixa Pharmatech Co., Ltd.', a Hanyang University faculty-founded company.
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