Development of a novel bioreactor for the generation of controlled hydrodynamic stimuli on vascular planar tissue samples

The complex phenomena and interactions that occur within the vascular tissue during the evolution of atherosclerotic pathology are still not fully understood today. Most of the in vitro studies examine the phenomenon using endothelial layers, thus not being able to evaluate the development of an atherosclerotic plaque between intima and media tunica. Furthermore, the stress conditions are often far from the real stress state observed in vivo. For this reason, we have developed a device that not only allows to accommodate samples of vascular tissue, but which also offers the possibility of applying a wide range of shear stress patterns under strictly controlled conditions. Such a device is able to recapitulate atherogenic or atheroprotective stimuli thus paving the way for physiopathological studies aimed at unravelling the role of shear stress patterns on cells response in reliable tissue models.