title: A flexible bioreactor system for constructing in vitro tissue and organ models.
abstract: To develop in vitro models of cells, tissues and organs we have designed and realized a series of cell culture chambers. Each chamber is purpose designed to simulate a particular feature of the in vivo environment. The bioreactor system is user friendly, and the chambers are easy to produce, sterilize and assemble. In addition they can be connected together to simulate inter-organ or tissue cross-talk. Here we discuss the design philosophy of the bioreactor system and then describe its construction. Preliminary results of validation tests obtained with hepatocytes and endothelial cells are also reported. The results show that endothelial cells are extremely sensitive to small levels of shear stress and that the presence of heterotypic signals from endothelial cells enhances the endogenous metabolic function of hepatocytes.
authors.affiliation: CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy. g.vozzi@centropiaggio.unipi.it
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vozzi
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mazzei
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vinci
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vozzi
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sbrana
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ricotti
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Forgione
authors.forename: Arti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahluwalia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D002452:Cell Count; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004867:Equipment Design; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D033081:Shear Strength