McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory > Mauck Lab > Bioreactor Development for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Bioreactor Development for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Recent cartilage tissue engineering endeavors have centered on the idea of "functional tissue engineering (FTE)". This subset of tissue engineering utilizes bioreactors that recreate a physiologic loading environment to foster construct growth [3,6]. These studies have focused on the use of a particular mechanical signal applied in isolation [4,5,8-10,12], such as axial compression or hydrostatic pressurization. The natural loading environment in diarthrodial joints is more complex, however, and changes with developmental stage. With postnatal joint loading, opposing cartilage surfaces come in contact and move relative to one another, generating simultaneous tensile and compressive forces along a moving point of contact, with fluid pressurization beneath the point of contact and fluid flow at the peripheries [13]. With development and use, an isotropic cartilaginous assembly is reformed into a terminally differentiated tissue exhibiting significant anisotropy along preferred directions [1,2,14] which in turn influences the functional response of the tissue [7,11]. Tissue anisotropy is thus a critical component of the functional properties of the native tissue, and must therefore be a parameter to consider when engineering tissue replacements. To address this issue, a novel sliding contact bioreactor is under development to test the hypothesis that the long-term application of physiologic sliding contact will increase the compressive and tensile (in the direction of sliding) mechanical properties of MSC- and chondrocyte-laden hydrogel constructs. It is hypothesized that these constructs will exhibit an enhanced collagen content as well as a parallel collagen fiber orientation in the direction of loading and may exhibit prolonged durability in the native joint loading environment.


Schematic of novel sliding contact bioreactor.

References

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