Perspectives on the advanced control of bioreactors for functional vascular tissue engineering in vitro

Abstract

Tissue engineering aims to produce tissues using cells and materials. The action of designing tissues involves observing the process of growth to understand its underlying mechanisms. It requires manipulation of the critical parameters for cell growth and remodeling to produce structured tissues and functional organs. Tissue engineers face the challenge of orchestrating the signals in a cell’s microenvironment to efficiently grow an anisotropic and hierarchical tissue. It can be performed in vivo through the design of bioactive scaffolds and manipulation of biological signals using growth factors. It can also be performed in vitro in a controlled environment called the bioreactor. This article addresses the matter of finding the optimal dynamic sequence of culture conditions in a bioreactor for the maturation of tissues. Artificial intelligence and optimal control are accelerating technologies towards an understanding of tissue regeneration. The particular example of the functional engineering of small-diameter blood vessels has been chosen to illustrate this idea.

Keywords::

• artificial intelligence
• bioreactor
• blood vessel
• control
• culture conditions
• growth and remodeling
• systems biology
• tissue engineering

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Heather Porritt for English revision of the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was partially supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fond québecois de la recherche en science et technologie and Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec. F Couet has been awarded Excellence Graduated Scholarships (PhD level). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.