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Design and validation of a biomechanical bioreactor for cartilage tissue culture

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Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Specific tissues, such as cartilage, undergo mechanical solicitation under their normal performance in human body. In this sense, it seems necessary that proper tissue engineering strategies of these tissues should incorporate mechanical solicitations during cell culture, in order to properly evaluate the influence of the mechanical stimulus. This work reports on a user-friendly bioreactor suitable for applying controlled mechanical stimulation—amplitude and frequency—to three-dimensional scaffolds. Its design and main components are described, as well as its operation characteristics. The modular design allows easy cleaning and operating under laminar hood. Different protocols for the sterilization of the hermetic enclosure are tested and ensure lack of observable contaminations, complying with the requirements to be used for cell culture. The cell viability study was performed with KUM5 cells.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by FEDER funds through the “Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade—COMPETE” and by national funds arranged by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, project reference PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2014. The authors also thank funding from Matepro—Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2—O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER). JAP, VS, CR and VC thank the FCT for the SFRH/BD/64586/2009 and SFRH/BPD/63148/2009, SFRH/BPD/90870/2012, and SFRH/BPD/97739/2013 grants, respectively. This work was funded also by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Copetitiveness (MINECO) through the project MAT2013-46467-C4-1-R (including the FEDER financial support). CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D&i Plan 2008–2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions and financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro/Departamento de Física da Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    V. Correia, J. A. Panadero, C. Ribeiro, V. Sencadas & S. Lanceros-Méndez

  2. Algoritmi Research Centre, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal

    V. Correia & J. G. Rocha

  3. Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    J. A. Panadero & J. L. Gomez Ribelles

  4. Ciber en Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Valencia, Spain

    J. L. Gomez Ribelles

Authors
  1. V. Correia
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  2. J. A. Panadero
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  3. C. Ribeiro
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  4. V. Sencadas
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  5. J. G. Rocha
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  6. J. L. Gomez Ribelles
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  7. S. Lanceros-Méndez
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to C. Ribeiro or S. Lanceros-Méndez.

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Declaration statement

The authors declare no competing interest and that all sources of funding are provided in the Acknowledgment section. Further, the study does not involve human subjects, uses commercial cell lines, and no further ethical approval is needed.

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Correia, V., Panadero, J.A., Ribeiro, C. et al. Design and validation of a biomechanical bioreactor for cartilage tissue culture. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 15, 471–478 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-015-0698-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-015-0698-5

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