DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A 3D FLUIDIC BIOREACTOR PLATFORM FOR A COMBINED MECHANICAL/PERFUSING STIMULATION OF ARTICULAR SUBSTITUTES

Due to its avascular nature, articular cartilage exhibits a very limited capacity to regenerate and to repair. Although much of the engineered cartilage grafts so far proposed have successfully shown to mimic the morphological and biochemical appearance of hyaline cartilage, they are generally mechanically inferior to the natural tissue1. In this study a new bioreactor device was realized to test innovative scaffolds under physiological stimulation (i.e. perfusion fluid flow and dynamic compression), with the aim to produce a more functional engineered tissue construct for articular applications.The computer-controlled bioreactor system has been properly designed to simultaneously provide static or dynamic compression and/or continuous perfusion to 3D engineered constructs, reproducing the physiological loads to which the articular cartilage is subjected. The specifically designed bioreactor comprises a chamber where the grafts are accommodated, a porous piston connected to a linear stepper motor (Dings, ...