| Tissue engineering has emerged as a promising approach to repair, replace or regenerate damaged tissues using tissue constructs created in vitro. The standard procedure of the strategy to create a functional tissue is to seed cells on a 3-D biodegradable and biocompatible scaffold, to grow them under precisely controlled culture conditions provided by a bioreactor system, and to deliver the matured construct into the patient's body to induce and direct the growth of the new and healthy tissue.;Since the applied mechanical stimulus is generated by a magnetic force, the engineered tissue construct is not only affected by a mechanical force, but also exposed to a magnetic field. Thus, the effects of the time-varying magnetic field during the culture process are investigated. The flux density of the field is modeled by COMSOL, and verified by a Gaussmeter. In addition, one side effect of using electromagnets, that of a temperature increase, is also investigated. The biomedical experiment results show that neither a weak low frequency magnetic field (0.1T, 1Hz) nor an increase of 1°C in temperature has a significant effect on the cell culture.;The performance of the designed apparatus is verified by the biomedical experiments from the aspects of cell proliferation and reorganization. Moreover, the mechanical parameters (strain distribution, strain rate, and stretch force) provided by the apparatus have also been quantitatively investigated.;In this thesis, a novel bioreactor system is designed and developed, which can provide uniaxial cyclic stretch to the tissue patch during culture process. The biostretch apparatus employs non-contact electromagnetic force to cyclically stretch a cell-seeded three-dimensional scaffold. The non-contact driving force and the specially designed mount allow researchers to use standard Petri dishes and commercially available CO2 incubators to culture an engineered tissue patch with precisely controlled strain. The device greatly simplifies the procedure to deliver mechanical stimulation during engineering a tissue patch. |
