Transport of species in a bio-reactor for bone tissue engineering

One of the most important issue in tissue engineering is the development of bio-reactors in which the best conditions for cells growth can be created and maintained for the time necessary to produce the tissue. These conditions include homogeneous flow distribution to obtain sufficient transport of nutrients (mainly glucose and oxygen) and efficient removal of catabolites together with low levels of shear stress at the surface of internal scaffolds where the cells are supposed to grow. In this work we simulate numerically the flow and transport of nutrients in a bio-reactor used to produce bone tissues which may then be implanted into patients to repair jaw defects. We characterize the flow distribution and the shear stress distribution at the surface of the scaffold. We solve for the transport of nutrients and we simulate the effect of local nutrients concentration at the surface of the scaffold on the growth rate of cellular tissues. Results of the numerical simulation can be used to improve the design of the bio-reactor and to identify the flow conditions which maximize cell growth