Magnetic Bioreactor for Magneto-, Mechano- and Electroactive Tissue Engineering Strategies

Abstract

Biomimetic bioreactor systems are increasingly being developed for tissue engineering applications, due to their ability to recreate the native cell/tissue microenvironment. Regarding bone-related diseases and considering the piezoelectric nature of bone, piezoelectric scaffolds electromechanically stimulated by a bioreactor, providing the stimuli to the cells, allows a biomimetic approach and thus, mimicking the required microenvironment for effective growth and differentiation of bone cells. In this work, a bioreactor has been designed and built allowing to magnetically stimulate magnetoelectric scaffolds and therefore provide mechanical and electrical stimuli to the cells through magnetomechanical or magnetoelectrical effects, depending on the piezoelectric nature of the scaffold. While mechanical bioreactors need direct application of the stimuli on the scaffolds, the herein proposed magnetic bioreactors allow for a remote stimulation without direct contact with the material. Thus, the stimuli application (23 mT at a frequency of 0.3 Hz) to cells seeded on the magnetoelectric, leads to an increase in cell viability of almost 30% with respect to cell culture under static conditions. This could be valuable to mimic what occurs in the human body and for application in immobilized patients. Thus, special emphasis has been placed on the control, design and modeling parameters governing the bioreactor as well as its functional mechanism.

Magnetoelectric Polymer-Based Nanocomposites with Magnetically Controlled Antimicrobial Activity

“…Schematic representation of the (a) magnetic bioreactor used for the bacterial assays and the stimulation profile applied by the bioreactor: the samples were subjected to a magnetic field variation for 16 h, which was divided into 10 min of activity and 10 min of resting time; (b) bioreactor operating principle depicting the 15 mm displacement of the permanent magnets below the culture wells and (c) magnetic field force line simulation in frontal and side planes which produce an alternated magnetic field that stimulates the magnetoelectric scaffolds. 46 The samples were subjected to a magnetic field that varies from 0 to 230 Oe. without any material were used as controls for bacterial growth.…”

Boosting Magnetoelectric Effect in Polymer-Based Nanocomposites

“…Despite the magnetoelectric effect in polymeric nanocomposites (NCs) is still smaller than in ceramic or laminar structures, they have advantages in simple fabrication, flexibility, and easy shaping [ 15 ]. Additionally, polymeric interfaces can show good biocompatibility, which together with multiferroic properties make them a unique tool for a set of bioapplications (e.g., cultivation surfaces with remotely controlled electric surface charge and mechanical stresses by applying an external magnetic field [ 22 , 23 ]). Application of both stimuli—charge and mechanical stress—may promote cell responses such as a controlled differentiation of stem cells.…”

Effective elastin-like recombinamers coating on poly(vinylidene) fluoride membranes for mesenchymal stem cell culture

“…Specific bioreactors, compatible with cell culture conditions, have been designed to fulfil the need of transmitting stimulus or cues to different cell types cultured on a wide variety of supports [9,10].…”