Electrospun hollow fibres for muscle tissue engineering in a soft bioreactor chamber

用于软生物反应器室肌肉组织工程的电纺中空纤维

基本信息

批准号：
NC/Y500604/1
负责人：
金额：
$ 12.74万
依托单位：
University of Oxford
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Training Grant
财政年份：
2024
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2024 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NC%2FY500604%2F1
关键词：
Electrospun hollow fibres muscle tissue

项目摘要

Muscle tissue engineering involves the use of biomaterials, cells, and bioreactor systems to generate functional muscle tissue constructs. This field holds great promises for the development of in vitro models, which could have many applications in drug development and drug screening as well as for the study of developmental and pathophysiological processes. The development of reliable and clinically applicable in vitro tissue constructs would drastically reduce the number of animals that are being used in biological and medical research or for preclinical studies. One of the challenges in the field is the diffusion limit which impedes gas and nutrient exchange in thicker constructs. This represents a particularly important aspect for muscle tissue engineering due to the tissue's high metabolic demands. Another limiting factor is the application of appropriate external mechanical stimulation to support the maturation of developing tissues. Specifically, muscle tissue is known to significantly rely on mechanical input for growth and maturation. These challenges need to be addressed in order to create reliable and clinically relevant tissue constructs with enhanced structural integrity and functionality. This project aims to address both challenges through the development of a soft bioreactor module that hosts flexible hollow fibres. Our research group has recently developed hollow electrospun fibres for vascular tissue engineering and a unique flexible bioreactor chamber that can undergo stimulation by humanoid robots. Together, those 2 technologies could provide an improved environment to support the synthesis of large and functional skeletal muscle tissue constructs.

肌肉组织工程涉及使用生物材料、细胞和生物反应器系统来生成功能性肌肉组织结构。该领域为体外模型的开发带来了巨大的希望，它可以在药物开发和药物筛选以及发育和病理生理过程的研究方面有许多应用。开发可靠且临床适用的体外组织构建体将大大减少用于生物和医学研究或临床前研究的动物数量。该领域的挑战之一是扩散限制，它阻碍了较厚结构中的气体和养分交换。由于组织的高代谢需求，这对于肌肉组织工程来说是一个特别重要的方面。另一个限制因素是应用适当的外部机械刺激来支持发育组织的成熟。具体来说，已知肌肉组织显着依赖机械输入来生长和成熟。需要解决这些挑战，以便创建具有增强结构完整性和功能的可靠且临床相关的组织构建体。该项目旨在通过开发容纳柔性中空纤维的软生物反应器模块来解决这两个挑战。我们的研究小组最近开发了用于血管组织工程的中空电纺纤维和独特的柔性生物反应器室，可以接受人形机器人的刺激。这两项技术共同可以提供一个改进的环境来支持大型功能性骨骼肌组织结构的合成。