Advanced bioreactor design and bioprocess controls for tissue engineering & regenerative medicine

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Stem cells are regarded as a promising tool in cell therapy and tissue engineering because of their high proliferation and multi-differentiation capabilities. However, the clinical use of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) is limited by technical difficulties in mass production, high manufacturing costs, and contamination. In the context of mass production and stem cell regulation, bioreactor systems not only modulate environmental and biochemical cues but also induce biomechanical cues such as shear stress and hypoxia. In this study, we developed a fully automated bioreactor system (fABS) for precisely controlling stem cell fate and applied this system to the proliferation and differentiation of human bone-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs). The fABS mainly consists of 5 systems: a monitoring system, the primary control system, a medium feeding system, a mass flow controller, and a cell culture system. We evaluated the precision with which the fABS regulated the environment and found that the shear stress induced by the fABS enhanced hMSC proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. Moreover, the hypoxia induced by the fABS enhanced chondrogenic differentiation. Since this system can be used for a variety of purposes, e.g., mass production, osteogenic differentiation, and chondrogenic differentiation, the fABS promises to help advance stem cell technologies.