Engineering Parameters in Bioreactor’s Design: A Critical Aspect in Tissue Engineering

Table 1

Comparison of engineering parameters in different TE bioreactors.

Bioreactor type	General descriptions	Mass transfer mechanism	Shear stress	Special usage	Tissue	Considerations
Static culture	Batch culture with no flow of nutrient	Diffusion (high)	Very low	Cell proliferation	—	Homogeneous structure of cell constructs and nutrient diffusion limitations
	Magnetically stirring of medium	Convection (high)	High	Dynamic seeding of scaffolds	Cartilage	Appropriate scaffold and balance between increasing mass transfer and modulating shear stresses
	Rotating at a speed so the constructs in the reactor are maintained “stationary” in a state of continuous free fall	Convection (high)	Low	Tissue constructs which need dynamic laminar flow	Cartilage, bone and skin	Operating conditions (e.g., speed of rotating) especially for growing large tissue mass
	Flow of medium over or through a cell population or bed of cells	Convection (moderate) and diffusion (high)	Moderate	Tissues physicochemicaly and environmentally relevant to human tissues	Epithelial cells, intestinal, bone, cartilage, and arteries	Seeding and attachment of human cells especially within the scaffold body