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Team 15
Team Members |
Faculty Advisor |
Samantha Parker |
Kazunori Hoshino Sponsor Unsponsored Student Team |
sponsored by
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Design of an Ex Vivo Model Platform for Bone and Cartilage Repair
Osteochondral defects of the articular cartilage and the underlying subchondral bone have limited repair capacity due to the avascular nature of cartilage, which restricts stem cell recruitment and tissue regeneration. While ex vivo tissue models can enable the study of osteochondral defects and related disorders in physiologically relevant tissue, they often lack the environmental controls of nutrients and oxygen concentration that help to replicate the osteochondral environment. In preliminary experiments, murine femurs were dissected, and a small mid-diaphyseal defect was created and cultured to observe early bone healing stages in a static system. To address the limitations of the static culture experiment, an ex vivo microfluidic system was fabricated. This device encases a murine femur sealed within a culture chamber that introduces two separate media flows using peristaltic pumps. Two defects are created in the bone: an osteochondral defect on the femoral condyle and a bone defect on the diaphysis. Each defect will receive a different media composition to mimic the distinct physiological environments within the body for cartilage and bone repair. The culture device will be enclosed within a compact incubator connected to a CO2 control system to maintain physiological conditions while allowing for live imaging of the defects. This platform enables a controlled and dynamic culture of bone tissue and provides a model for studying osteochondral regeneration in a single integrated system.