Hepatocyte culture in a radial-flow bioreactor with plasma polypyrrole coated scaffolds

We have designed and evaluated a radial-flow bioreactor for three-dimensional liver carcinoma cell culture on a new porous coated scaffold. We designed a culture chamber where a radial f low of culture medium was continuously delivered through it. Once this system was established, f low was simulated using flow dynamics software based on numeric methods to solve Navier-Stockes flow equations. Perfusion within cell culture scaffolds was simulated using a f low velocity of 7 mL/min and found that cell culture medium was distributed unhindered in the bioreactor chamber. Afterwards, the bioreactor was built according to the simulated design and was tested with liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) cultured over an L-polylactic acid scaffold whose surface was modified with iodine-doped polypyrrole. The bioreactor was tested under non-flow and in radial f low conditions. Cell density under radial f low conditions was almost double than that under static conditions and both total protein and albumin output was also increased under radial f low conditions.