The impact of process stress on suspended anchorage-dependent mammalian cells as an indicator of likely challenges for regenerative medicines.

To quantify the engineering shear constraint on processing, the effect of capillary shear stress (pipe flow) on suspended anchorage-dependent mammalian cells has been investigated. Exposure of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells to repeated capillary shear stress (2-120 N m(-2)) causes a decrease in total number of cells, number of intact cells and number of cells able to grow. The optimum wall shear stress for cell survival was found to be 10-50 N m(-2) (flowrate 4-20 mL/min, I.D. 0.45 mm). Cell populations which are able to grow after exposure to shear stress do not exhibit reduced growth rate or altered metabolism. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.