A high-throughput bioreactor system for simulating physiological environments

The optimization of in vitro cell culture for tissue engineering, pharmacological, or metabolic studies requires a large number of experiments to be performed under varying conditions. In this paper, we describe a high-throughput bioreactor system that allows the conduction of parallel experiments in a simulated in vivo-like environment. Our bioreactors consist of tissue-, organ-, or system-specific culture chambers and a mixing device controlled by an embedded system that regulates the insertion of gas in the culture medium in order to control pH and pressure. Each culture chamber and mixing device possesses an autonomous control system that is able to ensure an optimal environment for cells. A computer communicates with the embedded system to acquire data and set up experimental variables. With this apparatus, we can perform a high-throughput experiment controlling several bioreactors working in parallel. In this paper, we discuss the architecture and design of the system, and the results of some experiments which simulate physiological and pathological conditions are presented