A cutting-edge mechanical stimulation bioreactor for tissue engineering

数百万人遭受组织/器官损伤或损害，例如骨损伤和心脏病发作。组织/器官移植是治疗这些类型损伤的黄金标准，但由于供体组织/器官的可用性有限，作为一种选择受到严重限制。组织工程旨在生产组织/器官替代品或支架，以改善当前的治疗方法，从而为受损的组织/器官提供永久性解决方案。一个类比是在机械师那里购买新零件，以更换损坏或不再工作的汽车零件。组织工程的成功将意味着不幸遭受组织/器官损伤的人可以去医院，将工程支架植入他/她的身体，然后在工程支架的帮助下完全恢复健康身体的功能。 ** 然而，生产这种组织支架已被证明是一项具有挑战性的任务，并且临床应用的进展有限。一个重要的障碍是不能制造具有适合于促进细胞生长和组织再生的机械性能并且最终可以支持具有与天然组织的机械性能匹配的机械性能的组织的生长的支架。因此，机械性能在组织工程中是重要的。在本申请中，我们要求一种尖端生物反应器，其可用于（1）表征支架和天然组织的机械性质和（2）使支架经受机械力或刺激（例如，压缩力，如我们身体中的关节所经历的）以促进细胞生长和组织再生。所需仪器的能力将使我们能够开发具有适合组织工程应用的机械性能的支架，包括心肌梗塞（或心脏病发作）治疗、关节软骨修复、牙齿缺陷治疗和骨缺陷治疗，这些都是萨斯喀彻温大学正在积极研究的。因此，研究的主要利益攸关方是大量遭受组织/器官损伤的加拿大人以及相关领域的健康研究人员/从业人员/行业合作伙伴。这项研究还将涉及培养研究生，以满足组织工程和保健领域对高素质人才日益增长的需求。 *****

Millions of people suffer from tissue/organ injuries or damage, such as bone injuries and heart attacks. Tissue/organ transplantation is the gold standard to treat some of these types of injuries but is severely restricted as an option due to the limited availability of donor tissue/organs. Tissue engineering aims to produce tissue/organ substitutes or scaffolds to improve upon current treatment approaches, thus providing a permanent solution to damaged tissue/organs. An analogy would be buying new parts at the mechanic to replace car parts that are broken or no longer functioning. Successes in tissue engineering would mean that someone who unfortunately suffers a tissue/organ injury could go to a hospital, have the engineered scaffolds implanted into his/her body, and then later completely recover the function of a healthy body with the help of the engineered scaffolds. ******Producing such tissue scaffolds, however, has proven to be a challenging task and progress towards clinical applications has been limited. An important barrier is the inability to fabricate scaffolds with mechanical properties that are appropriate for promoting cell growth and tissue regeneration and that can eventually support the growth of tissues with mechanical properties matching those of native tissue. As such, mechanical properties are of importance in tissue engineering. In this application, we request a cutting-edge bioreactor that can be used to (1) characterize the mechanical properties of scaffolds and native tissue and (2) subject scaffolds to mechanical force or stimulation (e.g., compressive forces, as experienced by joints in our bodies) to promote cell growth and tissue regeneration. The capacity enabled by the requested instrument will allow us to develop scaffolds with mechanical properties appropriate for tissue engineering applications, including myocardial infarction (or heart attack) treatment, articular cartilage repair, tooth defect treatment, and bone defect treatment, which are being actively pursued at the University of Saskatchewan. As such, the primary stakeholders of the research are the large number of Canadians who suffer from tissue/organ injuries as well as health researchers/practitioners/industry partners in related areas. This research will also involve the training of graduate students to meet the increasing demand for highly qualified personnel in the fields of tissue engineering and health care. *****