[Simulation of the growth of neurosphere cultured in bioreactors]

When the size of a neurosphere cultured in vitro reaches a certain critical value, a necrotic core will appear inside the neurosphere because of the limitation of oxygen or other nutrients transport from medium to the cells in the neurasphere. Large necrotic core will greatly reduce the expansion of NSCs. The cellular automaton (CA) model is applied in this article to model the growth of NSCs in sphere state. The appearance and enlargement of the necrotic core in a neurosphere is calculated by coupling the CA model with the nutrient diffusion analysis in bioreactors. The calculation results indicate that the culture conditions, such as seeding density, the concentration of nutrients in medium and the mass transfer coefficient between a neurosphere and medium, have some effects on the appearance of the necrotic core. However, the necrotic core mainly depends on the inner diffusion. It will certainly appear if the size of the neurosphere is large enough even the outside mass transfer is in a good condition in bioreactors. Additionally, the appearance of the necrotic core resulting from the shortage of oxygen is earlier than that caused by the limitation of glucose. And the growth of the necrotic core is very fast after its appearance, and the whole neurosphere may become necrotic. The model developed with cellular automaton and mass transfer is a good qualitative representation of NSCs growth in bioreactors.