Design and Validation of a Physiologically-Adapted Bioreactor for Tissue Engineering of the Nucleus Pulposus

Processes

May Win Naing¹  Yang Liu¹  Immanuel Sebastine¹  David Dingmann²  Chrysanthi Williams² 

[1] Healthcare Engineering Research Group, Centre for Biological Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK; E-Mails:;ElectroForce Systems Group, Bose Corporation, Eden Prairie, MN 55346, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: bioreactor;    tissue engineering;    nucleus pulposus;    mechanical stimulation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/pr2010001

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A novel multi-axial bioreactor was designed and developed to deliver combinations of the following dynamic mechanical stimulation conditions: hydrostatic pressure, pulsatile perfusion flow and uniaxial compression in order to mimic in vivo conditions. This mechanical arrangement simultaneously allows triaxial stimulation and characterization of mechanical properties of samples, in particular simulating the conditions experienced by the nucleus pulposus in vivo. A series of initial experiments were performed on this prototype system using consistent, commercially-available, three dimensional scaffolds in combination with human dermal fibroblasts. Our results show that while such bioreactors hold much promise in tissue engineering of desired organs, achieving the right combination of mechanical stimuli and other conditions required in order to enhance the final properties of the cell-scaffold systems is challenging.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.