Abstract
Standard tests are needed for evaluating and comparing the mechanical and biological functions of tissue engineered arteries and other vascular grafts. We propose an ex vivo organ culture system as a living system for testing tissue-engineered vascular grafts. This bench-top organ culture system mimics the physiological environment of arteries including the flow, pressure, and the axial stretch. Arterial mechanical properties and physiologic functions including compliance, burst pressure, and contractile functions can be assessed before an expensive long-term animal test is initiated. Test results of natural arteries indicate that organ culture is a valid model for comprehensive evaluation of tissue-engineered vascular grafts.
Organ culture systems are instrumental as experimental whole-organ models of physiology and disease, as well as preservation modalities facilitating organ replacement therapies such as transplantation. Nevertheless, a coordinated system of machine perfusion components and integrated regulatory control has yet to be fully developed to achieve long-term maintenance of organ function ex vivo. Here we outline current strategies for organ culture, or organomatics, and how these systems can be regulated by means of computational algorithms, or organometrics, to achieve the organ culture platforms anticipated in modern-day biomedicine.
Detrimental effects of discectomy on intervertebral disc biology can be decelerated by growth factor treatment during surgery: a large animal organ culture model