A fluidized bed bioreactor containing encapsulated hepatocytes may be a valuable alternative to a hollow fiber bioreactor for achieving the improved mass transfer and scale-up potential necessary for clinical use. However, a conventional fluidized bed bioreactor (FBB) operating under high perfusion velocity is incapable of providing the desired performance due to the resulting damage to cell-co...

Breast carcinomas are complex, three-dimensional tissues composed of cancer epithelial cells and stromal components, including fibroblasts and extracellular matrix. In vitro models that more faithfully recapitulate this dimensionality and stromal microenvironment should more accurately elucidate the processes driving carcinogenesis, tumor progression, and therapeutic response. Herein, novel in ...

This protocol details the generation of acellular, yet biofunctional, renal extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds that are useful as small-scale model substrates for organ-scale tissue development. Sprague Dawley rat kidneys are cannulated by inserting a catheter into the renal artery and perfused with a series of low-concentration detergents (Triton X-100 and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)) over ...

Tissue engineering strategies aim at controlling the behavior of individual cells to stimulate tissue formation. This control is achieved by mimicking signals that manage natural tissue development or repair. Flow perfusion bioreactors that create culture environments with minimal diffusion constraints and provide cells with mechanical stimulation may closely resemble in vivo conditions for bon...

Osteoarthritis is a severe socio-economical disease, for which a suitable treatment modality does not exist. Tissue engineering of cartilage transplants is the most promising method to treat focal cartilage defects. However, current culturing procedures do not yet meet the requirements for clinical implementation. This article presents a novel bioreactor device for the functional tissue enginee...

Different types of stem cells have been investigated for applications in drug screening and toxicity testing. In order to provide sufficient numbers of cells for such in vitro applications a scale-up of stem cell culture is necessary. Bioreactors for dynamic three-dimensional (3D) culture of growing cells offer the option for culturing large amounts of stem cells at high densities in a closed s...

In vitro models that capture the complexity of in vivo tissue and organ behaviors in a scalable and easy-to-use format are desirable for drug discovery. To address this, we have developed a bioreactor that fosters maintenance of 3D tissue cultures under constant perfusion and we have integrated multiple bioreactors into an array in a multiwell plate format. All bioreactors are fluidically isola...

Engineered tissue grafts have been manufactured using methods based predominantly on traditional labour-intensive manual benchtop techniques. These methods impart significant regulatory and economic challenges, hindering the successful translation of engineered tissue products to the clinic. Alternatively, bioreactor-based production systems have the potential to overcome such limitations. In t...