Bioreactors for tissue engineering

Abstract

A variety of bioreactor designs exist today as a result of previous efforts by engineers and researchers to construct optimal systems for a particular tissue engineering application. The primary purpose of any bioreactor is to provide a sterile cell culture environment that can be tightly controlled. A bioreactor can be as simple as a petri dish and as complex as an automatically controlled, cyclically loaded three-dimensional biochamber. A number of laboratories have designed custom bioreactors that apply mechanical stimuli to cells grown in monolayer or three-dimensional culture conditions. Varying levels of bioreactor complexity exist; typically, the systems incorporate at least one of five common loading regimens, including perfusion fluid flow, hydrostatic pressure, uniaxial displacement, biaxial displacement, or microgravity (Fig. 10.1) [10]. Bioreactors can be used to provide an in vitro environment more similar to the in vivo condition; dynamic culture systems are necessary to provide an appropriate, physiologically relevant environment [1].