The TC-3 Bioreactor has been designed as a simple, easy-to-use system suitable to create cell culture experimental set-ups accounting for user-defined mechanical loading profiles. The needs of researchers who would like to culture cells under mechanical stimuli have been accounted for in the design of the TC-3. It combines the features of a traditional testing machine with the particular demands of cell culture, with special emphasis on the sterilization of the parts which are going to contact the culture medium, the easy assembling, the sample inspection by microscopy techniques and the straightforward sample manipulation.

The TC-3 permits to work with:

• Horizontally and vertically arranged multiple samples.
• Immersed and air-liquid interface setups.
• Sheet-shaped, rod-shaped and cylinder-shaped substrates.
• Tension and compression axial loading.
• Simultaneous flow and deformation conditions.
• Hydrostatic pressure conditions.

Depending on the scaffold type, it is also possible to use microscopy techniques to inspect the status of the culture in-situ.

Scalability and versatility are key features of the TC-3, in which three grips models can be interchanged in order to adapt to the features of the testing substrate or scaffold.

The system is controlled by a simple computer interface which allows defining the most common loading profiles which can be applied on the culture substrate.