title: A novel cylindrical biaxial computer-controlled bioreactor and biomechanical testing device for vascular tissue engineering.
abstract: It is becoming evident that tissue-engineered constructs adapt to altered mechanical loading, and that specific combinations of multidirectional loads appear to have a synergistic effect on the remodeling. However, most studies of mechanical stimulation of engineered vascular tissue engineering employ only uniaxial stimulation. Here we present a novel computer-controlled bioreactor and biomechanical testing device designed to precisely and simultaneously control mean and cyclic values of transmural pressure (at rates up to 1 Hz and ranges of 40 mmHg), luminal flow rate, and axial length (or load) applied to gel-derived, scaffold-derived, and self-assembly-derived tissue-engineered blood vessels during culture, while monitoring vessel geometry with a resolution of 6.6 mum. Intermittent monitoring of the extracellular matrix and cells is accomplished on live tissues using multi-photon confocal microscopy under unloaded and loaded conditions at multiple time-points in culture (on the same vessel) to quantify changes in cell and extracellular matrix content and organization. This same device is capable of performing intermittent cylindrical biaxial biomechanical testing at multiple time-points in culture (on the same vessel) to quantify changes in the mechanical behavior during culture. Here we demonstrate the capabilities of this new device on self-assembly-derived and collagen-gel-derived tissue-engineered blood vessels.
authors.affiliation: The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0405, USA.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Zaucha
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raykin
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gauvin
authors.forename: Francois A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Auger
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Germain
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Michaels
authors.forename: Rudolph L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Gleason
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*