Design of a bioreactor to cyclically strain tissue engineered blood vessel rings

Cyclic mechanical loading improves strength and extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis in tissue engineered blood vessels (TEBV). The goal of this project was to design a device to impart cyclic circumferential stretch on cell-derived TEBV rings cultured on flexible silicone tubing. During static inflation tests, the tubing diameter increased by 10±1.6%. Our device cyclically displaces water (75 μl volume) to inflate tubing at a frequency of 1 Hz. TEBV rings were loaded onto silicone tubing and subjected to mechanical conditioning for 3-7 days. Structural analysis of conditioned TEBV ring samples (compared to statically cultured control rings) is in progress.