Distributed and Lumped Parameter Models for the Characterization of High Throughput Bioreactors

Laura Iannetti, Giovanna D’Urso, Gioacchino Conoscenti, Elena Cutrì, Rocky S Tuan, Manuela T Raimondi, Riccardo Gottardi and Paolo Zunino

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-25

Abstract: Next generation bioreactors are being developed to generate multiple human cell-based tissue analogs within the same fluidic system, to better recapitulate the complexity and interconnection of human physiology [1, 2]. The effective development of these devices requires a solid understanding of their interconnected fluidics, to predict the transport of nutrients and waste through the constructs and improve the design accordingly. In this work, we focus on a specific model of bioreactor, with multiple input/outputs, aimed at generating osteochondral constructs, i.e., a biphasic construct in which one side is cartilaginous in nature, while the other is osseous. We next develop a general computational approach to model the microfluidics of a multi-chamber, interconnected system that may be applied to human-on-chip devices. This objective requires overcoming several challenges at the level of computational modeling. The main one consists of addressing the multi-physics nature of the problem that combines free flow in channels with hindered flow in porous media. Fluid dynamics is also coupled with advection-diffusion-reaction equations that model the transport of biomolecules throughout the system and their interaction with living tissues and C constructs. Ultimately, we aim at providing a predictive approach useful for the general organ-on-chip community. To this end, we have developed a lumped parameter approach that allows us to analyze the behavior of multi-unit bioreactor systems with modest computational effort, provided that the behavior of a single unit can be fully characterized.

Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162774 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 62774&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0162774

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162774

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().