Dynamic Bioreactor For Engineered Cartilage Tissue

Abstract

Cartilage within the knee joint that is damaged in younger patients due to sports injuries and other traumatic events does not heal spontaneously. Cartilage damage leads to pain, decreased mobility and can eventually progress to diffuse cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis of a joint. There are no current medical or surgical treatments that restore osteoarthritic joints to their native condition and patients will commonly require joint replacement. In order to develop new treatments to regenerate damaged cartilage, stem cells have been used to produce cartilage like tissues. The Dynamic Bioreactor for Engineered Cartilage Tissue shall mimic loads that are observed from humans’ natural gait onto stem cell seeded scaffolds, specifically for creating tissue that will have similar histological and mechanical properties as that of native cartilage. The aim is to provide shear of 5%-10% and axial compression of up 20%, a sterile environment for cell growth, as well as regulate and record the axial strain and shear strain. For the various phases and milestones of the project, refer to Appendix A. This report is a comprehensive summary of our final project and its associated documentation.