An enzymatic membrane reactor for extracorporeal blood oxygenation

The potential use of the enzyme catalase to oxygenate blood was investigated. A microcalorimetric technique was used to study the kinetics of oxygen generation in human blood serum at 25 and 37°C. Experiments carried out in serum and in phosphate buffer provided the apparent rate constants for the enzymatic and non-enzymatic oxygen-generation reactions. A simplified mathematical model was then developed to analyse the behavior of a hollow-fiber membrane oxygenator with catalase covalently bound to the membrane surface. The model was used to simulate an extracorporeal oxygenation treatment and outline differences with current devices.