TABLE 1.

Organisms employed for photosynthetic oxygenation in medical applications.

Species	Classification	Relevant attributes	Biomedical application	Illumination	References
C. reinhardtii	Unicellular eukaryotic green alga of the genus Chlamydomonas	Model organism in areas such as flagellar function, photobiology, photosynthesis and recombinant protein synthesis. Optimal cell growth between 20 and 25°C in defined salt-based liquid or agar media at neutral pH	• Proof-of-principle of alga-vertebrate symbiosis Photosynthetic dermal scaffolds. • Photosynthetic sutures. • Photosynthetic gene therapy for expression and delivery of recombinant proteins	Constant illumination, white light (1,500–2,500 lux, 72.5 μmol m–2 s–1)	Hopfner et al., 2014; Alvarez et al., 2015; Schenck et al., 2015; Chávez et al., 2016; Centeno-Cerdas et al., 2018
			• “Green bioprinting” of 3D alginate photosynthetic scaffolds	Constant illumination or 14/10 h L/D cycles, warm−white light−emitting diode panel (20 μmol m–2 s–1)	Krujatz et al., 2015; Lode et al., 2015
C. littorale	Unicellular eukaryotic green alga of the genus Chlorococcum	Highly CO2-tolerant green alga with a growth rate optimum at 22°C that has been investigated for photoautotrophic lipid production	• In vitro oxygenation of multilayered cell-sheet-based bioartificial cardiac tissue	Constant illumination (500–700 lux, or 1313 ± 45 lux)	Haraguchi et al., 2017
				Illumination with an LED light source (30–170 μmol m–2 s–1)	Ota et al., 2015a,b
C. pyrenoidosa	Unicellular eukaryotic green algae of the genus Chlorella	Grows optimally at 37°C and pH 7.4.	• Implementation in the development of a photosynthetic artificial lung	Illumination with 400 W Hg-metal halide hybrid lamp (luminous flux of 28,000 lumens, color rendering index of 91, and chromaticity of 5200 K) and 300 W of plant grow lights	Basu-Dutt et al., 1997
C. vulgaris	Unicellular eukaryotic green algae of the genus Chlorella	Has emerged as a promising alternative feedstock and nutritional supplement with anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects. Optimal growth at 30°C, pH 8.2–8.7. Contains a large concentration of chlorophyll	• Photosynthetic oxygenation of explanted pancreatic tissue	Illumination for 30 min., LED lights (70,000 lux)	Yamaoka et al., 2012
			• Potential use as an oxygen-generating system to enhance radio- and photodynamic cancer therapy	Constant illumination, cool white fluorescent light (3,000 lux); Illumination for 2 h, red light diode (660 nm, 6,000 lux)	Morimoto et al., 1995; Qiao et al., 2020
C. sorokiniana	Unicellular eukaryotic green algae of the genus Chlorella	Potential for application in wastewater treatment and biodiesel production. Tolerates up to 42°C and shows high growth rate at 37°C	• Photosynthetic oxygen supply to encapsulated pancreatic islets	Constant illumination, fiber optic light source	Bloch et al., 2006; Eladel et al., 2019
				Constant illumination, tubular fluorescent lamp (100 μmol photons m–2 s–1)	Morimoto et al., 1995; Qiao et al., 2020
S. elongatus	Unicellular cyanobacterium of the genus Synechococcus	Has been thoroughly investigated as a candidate for photoautotrophic biosynthesis in diverse biotechnological applications, cultivation optimum at > 30°C	• Proof-of-principle of vertebrate-cyanobacterium symbiosis	Constant illumination with strong light	Agapakis et al., 2011
			• Intramyocardial photosynthetic oxygen supply to alleviate ischemia upon myocardial infarction	Constant illumination, plant fluorescent light bulbs	Cohen et al., 2017
			• Microalgae-gel patch for healing of chronic diabetes-associated wounds	Illumination in 6 cycle-period of 30 min., near-infrared light-emitting diode (620–660 nm, 0.5 W/cm2 power density)	Chen et al., 2020
			• Photoautotrophic biosynthesis	Constant illumination, white light (500 μmol photons ⋅ m–2 s–1); constant illumination, artificial cool white light (55 ± 0.5 μmol photons ⋅ m–2 ⋅ s–1)	Yu et al., 2015; Sarnaik et al., 2017