ASGSB 1998 Annual Meeting Abstracts

[66]
SKELETAL TISSUE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE NASA BIOREACTOR.  B.J. Klement, B.J. George, and N. D. Houston. Space Medicine and Life Sciences Research Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA.

In standard organ culture dishes, embryonic mouse pre-metatarsal mesenchyme explants differentiate to form cartilage tissue, undergo terminal chondrocyte differentiation, form a mineralized matrix, and increase significantly in length. Studies were conducted to analyze pre-metatarsal development during culture in the NASA High Aspect Ratio Bioreactor Vessel. Culture for 5, 7, and 14 days in the bioreactor resulted in pre-metatarsals that were 472µm, 98µm, and 364µm shorter than pre-metatarsals cultured in standard culture dishes, respectively. Pre-metatarsals cultured for the first 2, 5, or 7 days in the bioreactor followed by culture in standard dishes for a total culture time of 14 days were 5%, 19%, ands 24 % shorter than pre-metatarsals cultured for the entire 14 days in standard dishes, and showed little terminal chondrocyte differentiation or mineralization. In an additional experiment, a bioreactor apparatus was suspended in the incubator so that the rotating vessel was turned 90 from the normal bioreactor position. The modified bioreactor was rotated at a very low rpm. Pre-metatarsal development in the modified bioreactor was compared to development in the standard bioreactor and in standard culture dishes. After 5 days of culture the pre-metatarsals in the modified bioreactor were 214µm longer in length than the pre-metatarsals in the normal bioreactor, but were 307µm shorter than the pre-metatarsals in standard culture dishes. The difference in length between the 2 bioreactor cultures decreased after 9 days of rotation, but were 30% shorter than the pre-metatarsals in standard culture dishes, and demonstrated no terminal chondrocyte differentiation. (Supported by NIH GM08248, RR 03034, NASA NCCW-0083 and NASA NAG2-1215).

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