14 DAY TRIAL // A new bioreactor developed in the United States can both culture and monitor cells being grown for artificial tissues. This is a significant improvement over existing approaches to tissue engineering, since it eliminates the need to stop the growth process in order to conduct time-consuming analyses.
In standard bioreactors, tissue samples need to be removed from within the device periodically, sliced up and tested under the microscope. This is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process that could soon be removed from the equation.
Bioreactors are generally used to grow cells that match certain specifications. For example, say experts want to build knee or hip cartilages. They need to grow the exact same cells that naturally grow in the human body, in identical conditions.
With the new instrument, this might become easier and faster than ever. Due to the fact that it also contains an analysis and feedback mechanism, the new bioreactor can monitor the cells as they grow, identifying any potential flaws that may develop during the process.
The investigations are carried out using ultrasound scans, an unobtrusive and non-damaging approach that can yield a vast volume of data without affecting the actual samples. The novel bioreactor was created by experts at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“Most bioreactors don't do any type of nondestructive evaluation. Having some sort of ongoing evaluation of the developing tissue is definitely novel,” explains Jenni Popp, a postdoctoral researcher at NIST, and the first author of a new paper detailing how the bioreactor was created.
The study, entitled “An instrumented bioreactor for mechanical stimulation and real-time, nondestructive evaluation of engineered cartilage tissue,” will be published in the June print issue of the esteemed Journal of Medical Devices.
NIST investigators worked closely with colleagues from the University of Colorado in Boulder (UCB) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in developing the new bioreactor.
The researchers say that the device may also be well suited for applications in biokinetics, the science dealing with studying the growth and movement of tissues as they develop. A few mathematical models covering biokinetics already exist, but could not be confirmed by direct observations until now.