Development of a miniaturized bioreactor for neural culture and axon stretch growth

In this paper, a miniaturized bioreactor for accelerating nerve growth is developed to investigate potentially bi-directional peripheral neural interface based on tissue engineering. The bioreactor consisting of two parallel chambers that are extended to conduct controlled trials for optimized neuronal culture. The chamber is used to improve the micro-environment of in vitro nerve regeneration in a CO₂ incubator, whereas the process of axon stretch growth is performed by a computer controlled micro-motion system comprised of a linear motion table and a micro-stepper motor. This apparatus produces axon stretch growth by taking l μm step every 1 minute over 1000 iterations for 1mm elongation growth per day. Results show that axons from neonatal DRG explants are grown with unidirectional polarity with a robust regeneration over 5 days in the culture chamber, whereas micro-displacement measurement indicates a satisfactory accuracy and repeatability for the implementation of computer-controlled ASG.