A Perfusion Bioreactor for Making Tissue-Engineered Constructs

Abstract

Experiments were performed to develop a design for a flow bioreactor. A system was constructed consisting of a small-scale bioreactor placed in a CO2 incubator, with four chambers for making tissue-engineered constructs, providing for long-term experiments in flow conditions maintaining sterility with different humidity and temperature factors in the culture and gaseous media. The adverse influences of flow on cell viability were minimized by optimizing the culture medium flow rate and the excess pressure in the flow chambers. The functional effectiveness of the bioreactor was demonstrated by chondrogenic differentiation of cells in a cell-engineered construct consisting of a microheterogeneous collagen-containing hydrogel matrix biopolymer, mesenchymal stromal cells from human fatty tissue, and chondrogenic differentiation medium as an example.