Simulation of cell seeding within a three-dimensional porous scaffold: a fluid-particle analysis

Cell seeding is a critical step in tissue engineering. A high number of cells evenly distributed in scaffolds after seeding are associated with a more functional tissue culture. Furthermore, high cell densities have shown the possibility to reduce culture time or increase the formation of tissue. Experimentally, it is difficult to predict the cell-seeding process. In this study, a new methodology to simulate the cell-seeding process under perfusion conditions is proposed. The cells are treated as spherical particles dragged by the fluid media, where the physical parameters are computed through a Lagrangian formulation. The methodology proposed enables to define the kinetics of cell seeding continuously over time. An exponential relationship was found to optimize the seeding time and the number of cells seeded in the scaffold. The cell distribution and cell efficiency predicted using this methodology were similar to the experimental results of Melchels et al. One of the main advantages of this method is to be able to determine the three-dimensional position of all the seeded cells and to, therefore, better know the initial conditions for further cell proliferation and differentiation studies. This study opens up the field of numerical predictions related to the interactions between biomaterials, cells, and dynamics media.