Figure 1.

Schematic illustrating components of the bioreactor device and experimental compression regimes. (a) Six chondrocyte/agarose constructs were held under confined conditions in a locating stage as shown in the inset. Both the locating stage and loading plate were fluid permeable and perforated to facilitate nutrient transport to all surfaces of the construct. (b) The compression regimes are shown in the middle panel resulting in a total number of cycles ranging from 600 to 172,800 over a 6- or 48-hour culture period. Black bars indicate unstrained periods equivalent to 0% strain. (c) Black lines show typical response profiles for load and displacement generated with a sinusoidal waveform at time = 0 (dash), 1 (dash dot) and 48 hours (square dot), respectively.