Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026
Treatment of Ligament Constructs with Exercise-conditioned Serum: A Translational Tissue Engineering Model
Published on: June 11, 2017
Engineering of a periodontal ligament construct: cell and fibre alignment induced by shear stress
Sahng G Kim1, Seong-Gon Kim, Bryon Viechnicki
1Department of Endodontics, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennyslvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. sgk2114@columbia.edu
Aim:
We report an in vitro technique to establish alignment of collagen fibres and cells within a three-dimensional tissue equivalent that mimics the natural periodontal ligament (PDL) using a novel custom-designed bioreactor.
Material And Methods:
Shear stress was applied to the tissue equivalent prepared with collagen solution and seeded with human PDL cells. Stress-strain dynamics and the alignment of collagen fibres and PDL cells in tissue equivalents were analysed.
Results:
Shear stress aligned collagen fibres and PDL cells in a direction parallel to the principle strain vector. PDL cells and Collagen fibres aligned in strained tissue equivalents with higher uniformity than in unstrained tissue equivalents.
Conclusions:
The cell and fibre alignment of the engineered PDL was precisely guided by mechanical shear stress along the direction of principal strain vector using a custom-designed bioreactor, suggesting that the enhanced functional property of engineered PDL constructs could be achieved with this technique.
