title: Design and validation of a biomechanical bioreactor for cartilage tissue culture.
abstract: Specific tissues, such as cartilage, undergo mechanical solicitation under their normal performance in human body. In this sense, it seems necessary that proper tissue engineering strategies of these tissues should incorporate mechanical solicitations during cell culture, in order to properly evaluate the influence of the mechanical stimulus. This work reports on a user-friendly bioreactor suitable for applying controlled mechanical stimulation--amplitude and frequency--to three-dimensional scaffolds. Its design and main components are described, as well as its operation characteristics. The modular design allows easy cleaning and operating under laminar hood. Different protocols for the sterilization of the hermetic enclosure are tested and ensure lack of observable contaminations, complying with the requirements to be used for cell culture. The cell viability study was performed with KUM5 cells.
authors.affiliation: Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.|Algoritmi Research Centre, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.affiliation: Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.|Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Panadero
authors.affiliation: Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal. cribeiro@fisica.uminho.pt.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.affiliation: Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sencadas
authors.affiliation: Algoritmi Research Centre, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain.|Ciber en Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gomez Ribelles
authors.affiliation: Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal. lanceros@fisica.uminho.pt.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lanceros-Méndez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000254:growth & development*; D002460:Cell Line; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D051379:Mice; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Bioreactor; Cell culture; Mechanical stimulation; Scaffold