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Bioreactors allowing culture medium direct-perfusion overcome diffusion limitations associated with static culturing and provide flow-mediated mechanical stimuli. The hydrodynamic stress imposed on chondrocytes will depend not only on the culture medium flow rate, but also on the scaffold three-dimensional (3D) micro-architecture. We performed computational fluid-dynamic (CFD) simulations of the flow of culture medium through a 3D porous scaffold, with the aim of predicting the shear stress acting on the cells as a function of parameters that can be set in a tissue-engineering experiment, such as the medium flow rate and the diameter of the perfused scaffold section. We developed two CFD models: the first model (Model 1) was built from micro-computed tomography reconstruction of the actual scaffold geometry, while the second model (Model 2) was based on a simplification of the actual scaffold microstructure. The two models showed comparable results in terms of the distribution of the shear stresses acting on the inner surfaces of the scaffold walls. Models 1 and 2 gave a median shear stress of 3 mPa at a flow rate of 0.5 cm³ min^-1 through a 15 mm diameter scaffold. Our results provide a basis for the completion of more exhaustive quantitative studies to further assess the relationship between perfusion at known micro-fluid dynamic conditions and tissue growth in vitro.

In this study, the effects of threshold variation in image segmentation of micro CT images of cancellous bone in the determination of the architectural parameters and stiffness were investigated. A total of 42 samples of 6 × 6 × 6 mm³ cubes with threshold values set between 500–1100 greyscale in increment of 100 of CT images of six human C5 vertebral bodies were analyzed. Threshold value of 800, based on Otsu's method, was set for the control group. From various threshold values, the respective architectural parameters, and the corresponding stiffness in three orthotropic directions (Exx, Eyy, Ezz) of each cube were computed from the voxel-based micro-finite element models under compressive simulation. The results showed that 1% variation of threshold value resulted in a 3.4% variation in BV/TV, 2% in Tb.N, 3.1% in Tb.Th, 2.9% in BS/BV, 1.8% in Tb.Sp, 29.2% in Exx, 28.7% Eyy and 27.7% in Ezz. Statistical analysis showed that 2.9% threshold variation caused significant change in BV/TV, Tb.Th, Exx, Eyy and Ezz values. The study shows that with threshold variation of more than 2.9%, significant differences in the architectural parameters and stiffness compared to those based on Otsu's method.