Novel Sensor-Enabled Ex Vivo Bioreactor: A New Approach towards Physiological Parameters and Porcine Artery Viability

The aim of the present work is to design and construct an ex vivo bioreactor system to assess the real time viability of vascular tissue. Porcine carotid artery as a model tissue was used in the ex vivo bioreactor setup to monitor its viability under physiological conditions such as oxygen, pressure, temperature, and flow. The real time tissue viability was evaluated by monitoring tissue metabolism through a fluorescent indicator "resorufin." Our ex vivo bioreactor allows real time monitoring of tissue responses along with physiological conditions. These ex vivo parameters were vital in determining the tissue viability in sensor-enabled bioreactor and our initial investigations suggest that, porcine tissue viability is considerably affected by high shear forces and low oxygen levels. Histological evaluations with hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome staining show intact endothelium with fresh porcine tissue whereas tissues after incubation in ex vivo bioreactor studies indicate denuded endothelium supporting the viability results from real time measurements. Hence, this novel viability sensor-enabled ex vivo bioreactor acts as model to mimic in vivo system and record vascular responses to biopharmaceutical molecules and biomedical devices.