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US 2011/0212500 A1Published application
Flow-stretch-flexure bioreactor
AssigneeUniversity of Pittsburgh—Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education
InventorsSteven M. Boronyak, George C. Engelmayr, JR., Sharan Ramaswamy, Michael S. Sacks, David E. Schmidt, Mohammed S. El-Kurdi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein is a bioreactor system and modules capable of developing physiologically relevant fluid-induced shear stresses and regionally specific flow patterns to scaffold specimens and which can couple these stresses to cyclic flexure and/or stretch states. Methods of use of the bioreactor system and module also are provided.
Claims20
A tissue conditioning bioreactor module comprising:
- a) a module body comprising a cylindrical, folded passage having a substantially constant diameter ranging from 10 mm to 20 mm, the passage having an inlet, an outlet, an upstream portion, a bend, and a downstream portion that widens at a junction to define a cassette compartment with a diameter greater than that of the bend and the upstream portion and further comprising one or more actuator passages extending from the cassette compartment to outside the module body;
- and
- b) a tissue cassette within the cassette compartment comprising a tube having an inside diameter that is the same as or substantially the same as the diameter of the downstream portion, an outside diameter, a lumen and an outside surface, the tube being fluidly connected to the downstream portion of the passage and the outlet and defining a gap between the outer surface of the tube and the cassette compartment , the cassette further comprising one or more tissue anchor pairs extending through the lumen of the tube, where each pair comprises a movable anchor and a fixed anchor, where the moving anchor passes out of the tube through openings in the tube into the gap and are mechanically coupled to one or more actuators that extend through the actuator passages to outside the module, such that movement of the one or more actuators moves the movable anchor relative to the fixed anchor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.