Comparative study of seeding methods for three-dimensional polymeric scaffolds

Development of tissue-engineered devices may be enhanced by combining cells with porous absorbable polymeric scaffolds before implantation. The cells are seeded throughout the scaffolds and allowed to proliferate in vitro for a predetermined amount of time. The distribution of cells throughout the p orous material is one critical component determining success or failure of the tissue-engineered device. This can influence both the successful integr ation of the device with the host tissue as well as the development of a va scularized network throughout the entire scaffold volume. This research sou ght to compare different seeding and proliferation methods to select an ide al method for a polyglycolide/aortic endothelial cell system. Two seeding e nvironments, static and dynamic, and three proliferation environments, stat ic, dynamic, and bioreactor, were analyzed, for a total of six possible met hods. The six seeding and proliferation combinations were analyzed followin g a 1-week total culture time. It was determined that for this specific sys tem, dynamic seeding followed by a dynamic proliferation phase is the least promising method and dynamic seeding followed by a bioreactor proliferatio n phase is the most promising. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.