Abstract / Summary
Hypothesis Gas embolism -reported as rare, but often lethal or with devastating neurological outcomes- occurs when gas bubbles obstruct blood flow and oxygen delivery to vital organs. Immediately after its genesis, a resilient membrane comprising surface-adsorbed biomolecules present in blood slows gas dissolution back in the liquid phase. Consequently, therapeutic and prevention strategies could focus on microscale interfacial processes instead of, or in addition to the present, macroscale hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Surfactants can modulate the evolution and dynamics of gas bubbles by preventing bubble coalescence, decreasing bubble volume, and facilitating intravascular displacement. Experiments Conventional in vivo testing of pharmacological agents is challenging due to ethical, logistical, and reproducibility constraints, motivating the search for alternative strategies. Here we report the design, fabrication, and operation of a lab-on-a-chip platform mimicking human microvasculature, which enables in situ investigation of gas embolism-like events by monitoring the impact of Pluronic F-127, a surfactant approved for in vivo medical use, on gas bubble parameters, i.e. , average volume and velocity, spatial distribution across vascular bifurcations, temporal accumulation, extent of coalescence, and hematocrit distributions, modulated by varying blood pressure, hematocrit concentration, and blood vessel geometry. Findings The results demonstrated that Pluronic F-127 significantly reduced gas bubble size and the risk of vessel occlusion, and its effects could be directly compared with those of other pharmacological agents. The analysis using Weber, Capillary, and Euler dimensionless numbers indicates that the addition of surfactant significantly decreases the likelihood of bubble entrapment, supporting the case of surfactants being further explored as viable alternative or adjunct strategies for the prevention and therapy of gas embolism.