Strategies for improving the physiological relevance of human engineered tissues.
This review examines important robust methods for sustained, steady-state, in vitro culture. To achieve 'physiologically relevant' tissues in vitro additional complexity must be introduced to provide suitable transport, cell signaling, and matrix support for cells in 3D environments to achieve stable readouts of tissue function. Most tissue engineering systems draw conclusions on tissue functions such as responses to toxins, nutrition, or drugs based on short-term outcomes with in vitro cultures (2-14 days). However, short-term cultures limit insight with physiological relevance because the cells and tissues have not reached a steady-state.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology Center, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Rosalyn D
RD
Abbott
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology Center, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA 02155, USA. Electronic address: david.kaplan@tufts.edu.
David L
DL
Kaplan
D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D023822:Tissue Engineering
2D culture; 3D culture; bioreactors; long-term culture; microfluidics; tissue engineering