Instron, Norwood, Mass., is collaborating with the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of ascending aortic aneurysms in patients with bicuspid aortic valve and other heritable disorders. Instron TGT will be providing the instrumentation and mechanical environment to develop a model and evaluate the diseased state in vitro.
The patented LumeGen bioreactor system provides controlled pressure and flow to 3-dimensional vessels and real time monitoring and data collection. These features allow researchers to design the environment of interest in a reliable and repeatable manner to systematically unlock the secrets of disease.
An Instron TGT custom-built rotational vacuum device is being employed to seed small-diameter polymer grafts with primary human aortic smooth muscle cells in the lab of Drs. Thomas Gleason and Julie Phillippi. The tissue-engineered model will lead to an increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing the aortopathy associated with bicuspid aortic valve. Polymer grafts were provided by collaborators Drs. William Wagner and Antonio D’Amore with the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh
