Perspectives on the advanced control of bioreactors for functional vascular tissue engineering in vitro

Tissue engineering aims to produce tissues using cells and materials. The action of designing tissues involves observing the process of growth to understand its underlying mechanisms. It requires manipulation of the critical parameters for cell growth and remodeling to produce structured tissues and functional organs. Tissue engineers face the challenge of orchestrating the signals in a cell's microenvironment to efficiently grow an anisotropic and hierarchical tissue. It can be performed in vivo through the design of bioactive scaffolds and manipulation of biological signals using growth factors. It can also be performed in vitro in a controlled environment called the bioreactor. This article addresses the matter of finding the optimal dynamic sequence of culture conditions in a bioreactor for the maturation of tissues. Artificial intelligence and optimal control are accelerating technologies towards an understanding of tissue regeneration. The particular example of the functional engineering of small-diameter blood vessels has been chosen to illustrate this idea.