The Development of a Combined Electrical & Mechanical Stimulation Bioreactor to Improve Tissue Engineered Muscle Function

Abstract

This paper describes the development of novel bioreactor systems for use in studying the development of tissue engineered muscle constructs. The bioreactor systems combine two environmental stimuli, mechanical loading and electrical pulses which, independently, are known to promote muscle tissue growth, into a single system to investigate whether further functional improvements can be achieved. The bioreactors are reprogrammable to enable different stimulation protocols to be assessed and allow the simultaneous stimulation of up to six tissues in a single system. This allows us to improve experimental throughput and speeds up our understanding of the physiological processes involved in skeletal muscle development.