Development of an open hardware bioreactor for optimized cardiac cell culture integrating programmable mechanical and electrical stimulations

Abstract

A new open-hardware bioreactor capable of applying electrical field stimulation in conjunction with static or cyclic stretch is presented. Stretch is applied to cells by a specially designed elastomeric membrane with a central seeding region. The main interest of our approach is the fine control of the characteristics of stimulations in regard to timing and amplitude in a simple design based on affordable, easy to find components and 3D printable parts. Our approach opens the way to more complex protocols for electrical and/or mechanical stimulations, which are known important regulators of cardiac phenotypes.

Conversion of self-contained breathing apparatus mask to open source powered air-purifying particulate respirator for fire fighter COVID-19 response

“…This study is intended to outline and detail the design process for an open source device, to provide a framework on which to build such a device, and to provide a low-cost, accessible option for PPE in such an event as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Distributed manufacturing of open hardware has been shown to be an effective means to meet demand for a wide array of medical supplies during this immense supply shortages observed in the current pandemic [102] , [103] , [104] , [105] , [106] , [107] , [108] , [109] , [110] , [111] .…”

Versatile electrical stimulator for cardiac tissue engineering—Investigation of charge-balanced monophasic and biphasic electrical stimulations

“…Although commercial stimulators allow testing different ES patterns simultaneously, they are characterized by limited waveform modulation, high cost, and bulkiness, which limit the adoption of ES protocols in CTE. Alternatively, costeffective and portable platforms have been purposely Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology frontiersin.org developed (Pavesi et al, 2014;Ronaldson-Bouchard et al, 2019;Béland et al, 2020), however such devices are limited to a single output with limited ES tunability and/or can be used only with a specific setup.…”

“…However, commercial electrical stimulators are expensive and cumbersome devices and often allow limited modulation of ES parameters, constraining the investigation of different ES conditions and ultimately hindering the adoption of ES protocols in CTE ( Ronaldson-Bouchard et al, 2019 ). In recent years, the availability of affordable open-source micro-controllers promoted the development of customized stimulators to implement ES for biomimetic CTE approaches ( Pavesi et al, 2014 ; Ronaldson-Bouchard et al, 2019 ; Béland et al, 2020 ). However, these platforms are affected by limitations such as low ES tunability, reduced adaptability to different cell culture setups, and often limited versatility in terms of ES mode.…”

Novel Piezoelectric Device for Inducing Strain on Biological Tissue At High Speed

“…When studying physiological environments in literature, most devices follow simple cyclic waveforms such as sinusoidal [15], [18], [34], [35], or a feedforward approach [16]. To provide a better performance following complex physiological waveforms and overcome the piezoelectric actuators' hysteresis effect, a feedback control algorithm is proposed.…”

“…A proportional-integral (PI) feedback controller is used to achieve this. Current control methods used for tissue stretching devices include feedforward and simple cyclic waveforms limiting the effectiveness of mimicking tissue behavior [15], [16], [18], [34], [35]. The rest of this article is organized as follows.…”