Novel pulse duplicating bioreactor system for tissue-engineered vascular construct.
Cell culture in a biomimetic environment is known to improve the mechanical endurance of tissue-engineered cardiovascular components. Our goal was to generate a bioreactor that can reproduce a wide range of pulsatile flows with a completely physiological pressure profile. The morphology and biochemical properties of tissue-engineered products were also studied to test the usefulness of this novel bioreactor. The combination of an outflow valve, compliance chamber, and resistant clamps together with a balloon pumping system was able to successfully reproduce both physiological systolic and diastolic pressures. The compliance chamber was especially effective in transforming the original peaky pressure waveform into a physiological pressure profile. The tissues, cultured under a physiological pressure waveform with pulsatile flow, presented widely distributed cells in close contact with each other. They also showed significantly higher cell numbers, total protein content, and proteoglycan-glycosaminoglycan content than cultured tissues under a peaky pressure wave or under static conditions. This new bioreactor system is suitable for evaluating a favorable environment for tissue-engineered cardiovascular components.
Narita
Yuji
Y
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan. ynarita@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Hata
Ken-Ichiro
K
Kagami
Hideaki
H
Usui
Akihiko
A
Ueda
Minoru
M
Ueda
Yuichi
Y
D000818:Animals; D021522:Bioartificial Organs; D019149:Bioreactors; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004285:Dogs; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular / Q000502:physiology; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D011312:Pressure; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods