Tissue growth modeling in a wavy-walled bioreactor.

Abstract

Bioreactors have played a crucial role in recent approaches to cartilage tissue engineering, providing an environment that promotes efficient cell seeding, nutrient and waste transport, and essential physical stimuli. This study employed a wavy-walled bioreactor to investigate the effects of the hydrodynamic environment on the properties of engineered cartilage. Its unique design provides multiple hydrodynamic environments within one setting. A tissue growth model was developed to characterize the tissue growth and extracellular matrix synthesis by chondrocytes seeded and cultivated on polyglycolic acid scaffolds in the wavy-walled bioreactor for a period of 4 weeks. This model consists of four components: 1) a computational fluid dynamics model, 2) a kinetic growth model, 3) an artificial neural network that empirically correlates hydrodynamic parameters with kinetic constants, and 4) a second artificial neural network that correlates the biochemical composition of constructs with their material properties. In tandem, these components enable the prediction of the dynamics of tissue growth, as well as the final compositional and mechanical properties of engineered cartilage. The growth model methodology developed in this study serves as a tool to predict the optimal bioprocessing conditions required to achieve desired tissue properties.