Flow Transport Phenomena in Tissue Engineering

The dynamic environment in bioreactors is known to §affect tissue development in vitro. Chondrocytes, §the building blocks of articular cartilage, for §example, are stimulated by mechanical stresses such §as shear. On the other hand, high shear can damage §cells. Therefore, the optimization of bioreactor §design and operating conditions necessitates the §control of the shear stress environment. This book §focuses on the formulation of relationships between §tissue growth and the local shear stress in the §context of the tissue engineering of cartilage in §spinner-flask bioreactors. The analysis consists of §the characterization of the flow in a model §bioreactor, the measurement of glycosaminoglycan §synthesis in a prototype bioreactor operating under §similar hydrodynamic conditions, and the correlation §between the local shear stress and tissue deposition §on the cartilage constructs. This book provides new §insights into the contribution of convective flow §transport phenomena to cartilage development in §vitro, and should be especially useful to §bioengineers, students or anyone else who may be §interested in biofluids, tissue engineering or §mechanobiology.