Bioreactors hold a lot of promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. They have multiple uses including cell cultivation for therapeutic production and for in vitro organ modelling to provide a more physiologically relevant environment for cultures compared to conventional static conditions. Bioreactors are often used in combination with scaffolds as the nutrient flow can enhance oxygen and diffusion throughout the 3D constructs to prevent the formation of necrotic cores. A variety of scaffolds have been fabricated to achieve a structural architecture that mimic native extracellular matrix. Future developments of in vitro models will incorporate the ability to non-invasively monitor the cellular microenvironment to enhance the understanding of in vitro conditions. This review details current advancements in bioreactor and scaffold systems and provides insight on how in vitro models can be augmented for future biomedical applications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.