Respiratoid: A Photosynthetic Chloroplast–CTP–Alginate Macrosystem for 3D-Printed Oxygenation in Cell Transplantation
발표자
유채림 (한양대학교)
연구책임자
이동윤 (한양대학교)
초록
내용
Oxygen deprivation remains a major hurdle in cell transplantation, particularly in 3D constructs without vasculature. Here, we present a photosynthetically active hydrogel (“Respiratoid”) that continuously supplies oxygen via stabilized chloroplasts. Chloroplasts were conjugated to alginate using a chloroplast-transit peptide (CTP), which anchors to the outer chloroplast membrane, enhancing structural integrity and oxygen-evolving protein expression. The resulting Respiratoid was 3D-printed into centimeter-scale cubes (ResCubes) and loaded with pancreatic islets. The oxygen-releasing performance and islet-supporting capacity of the ResCubes were experimentally validated in vitro and in vivo and further supported by oxygen diffusion simulations in silico. This nature-inspired platform overcomes burst-release and ROS-related toxicity common to conventional oxygen-releasing biomaterials, and enables scalable, long-term oxygenation for cell-based therapies.