Bioreactor design considerations for hollow organs.

There are many important considerations in the design, construction, and use of a bioreactor for growing hollow organs such as vessels, gastrointestinal tissue, esophagus, and others. The growth of new organs requires a specialized container that provides sterility and an environment conducive to cell-seeding and attachment onto a three-dimensional bioabsorbable porous scaffold, incubation, maturation, and shipping for implantation. The materials' selection, dimensions, manufacturing, testing, and use of the bioreactor are all factors that should be considered in designing a bioreactor for the development of hollow organs.

Construction of a tubular scaffold that mimics J-shaped stress/strain mechanics using an innovative electrospinning technique.

Soft tissues such as blood vessel, lung, ureter, skin, etc., possess mechanical behavior characterized by a "J"-shaped curve on a stress-strain diagram with a low-stiffness highly elastic zone giving rise to a high-stiffness zone. This mechanical behavior may be adaptive and protective against aneurysm formation in tissues whose primary loading is pressure-based.