Effects of nutrient concentration and scaffold elasticity on the tissue growth in a tissue engineering scaffold channel

Abstract

Tissue-engineering scaffolds contain channels lined by cells that allow nutrient-rich culture medium to pass through to encourage cell proliferation. Several factors have significant impacts on the tissue growth, including the nutrient flow rate, concentration in the feed, scaffold elasticity, and cell properties. Recent studies have investigated these effects separately; however, in this work, we examine all of them simultaneously. Our objectives in this work are as follows: (i) developing a mathematical model describing the nutrient flow dynamics and concentration, scaffold elasticity, and cell proliferation; (ii) solving the model and then simulating the cell proliferation process; and (iii) optimizing the initial configuration of the scaffold channels to maximize the cell growth. The results of our study demonstrate that the rate of nutrient consumption by the cells (cell hunger rate) and the scaffold elastic compliance have an impact on tissue growth, with higher cell hunger rates leading to longer incubation periods, while scaffold elastic compliance slightly affects overall growth. Furthermore, decreasing the scaffold elastic compliance while maintaining a constant nutrient consumption rate results in an optimal funnel-shaped channel geometry, where the upper part of the channel is larger than the downstream, promoting enhanced tissue integration and functionality.