Development of a Novel Bioreactor System for Engineered Tissues

The devastating traumatic injuries sustained by warfighters in OIF/OEF frequently involve the loss of large portions of bone, muscle and skin. Current management of tissue coverage and augmentation involves the use of existing host tissue to construct, for example, muscular flaps or grafts. In many instances this approach is not feasible due to lack of viable tissue and/or donor site morbidity. Such complications delay or prohibit rehabilitation and restoration of tissue function. Tissue engineering of bulk functional tissue may provide a solution for these injuries. Recent studies have documented the importance of bioreactor preconditioning in vitro to the enhanced function of engineered skeletal muscle following implantation in vivo. We will leverage these initial findings to address the critical need for clinical translation and commercial use of platform bioreactor technologies required to treat these injuries. An established protocol for engineered skeletal muscle will provide a model system to create novel bioreactors capable of both noninvasive real-time imaging of engineered tissue formation and promotion of vasculogenesis. The result will be a “next generation” bioreactor system capable of noninvasive high throughput evaluation of various cell sources and biomaterials, as well as production of tissues that can overcome existing size limitations for functional reconstruction.