Bioreactor for growing engineered tissue
OwnerRobert B. Moreinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bioreactor and a method for growing engineered tissue provide facing surfaces in a vessel for containing cell-culture media. The facing surfaces are equidistant and define a gap therebetween while providing substrates for cell tissue growth. By maintaining conditions within the vessel conducive to cell tissue growth and moving the surfaces relative to one another within such cell culture media, tissue growing thereupon is subjected to physiological flow and shear stress, preferably through the use of oscillating motion, and engineered tissue is produced.
Claims15
A bioreactor for growing engineered tissue, which
- bioreactor comprises:
- a vessel for containing cell-culture media,
- a pair of flat parallel plates which are substantially equidistant from each other and define a constant uniform gap therebetween, said plates serving as substrates upon which cell tissue growth may occur within such gap,
- culture media within said vessel conducive to cell tissue growth, and
- an electromechanical drive mechanism which moves both said plates relative to one another to create oscillating motion within said culture media supplied to said vessel while maintaining said constant uniform gap so as to subject cell tissue growing upon and between said plates to physiological flow and to shear stress caused by the generation of a spatially uniform viscoelastic standing shear stress wave across said constant uniform gap.
A method for growing engineered tissue, which method comprises:
- providing two facing flat plates in a bioreactor vessel spaced apart by a constant uniform gap,
- supplying said vessel with cell-culture media under conditions conducive to cell tissue growth, and
- maintaining relative oscillating movement between said facing flat plates by moving both said plates with the uniform gap therebetween maintained constant so as to subject cell tissue growing upon facing surfaces of said plates to physiological flow and to shear stress caused by the generation of a spatially uniform viscoelastic standing shear stress wave across said constant uniform gap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.