Figure 1.

Bioreactor setup in incubator and probes. The control panel was installed into the hood for technical reasons. The Masterflex rotor could then be operated using the control panel to circulate media at the specified flow rate of 0.1 mL/min to the OsteoGen chambers. This setup has the LIPUS console outside of the incubator. This allowed control LIPUS stimulation without opening the incubator, thus minimizing environmental perturbations. Probes were coupled to the chambers through a polyurethane mold and gel to remove airspace and seal coupling. To ensure the consistence of the treatment, we have set the ultrasound exposure in the far field, which operated by an acoustic lens (∼7 mm), acoustic coupling gel (∼1–2 mm) and the thickness of the bioreactor chamber (∼3 mm). Within the ultrasound far field zone, the energy is consistent and is controlled at approximately 30 mW/cm².

LIPUS = low-intensity pulsed ultrasound.