3D cell culture rotary system

In the late 1980's, scientists and engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center developed a new type of cell culture system. The system was based on the principle of clinorotation, defined as the nullification of the force of gravity by slow rotation about one or two axes. The clinostat developed at NASA was a single axis device known as the Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV).

The original purpose of the RWV was to simulate the effects of microgravity in order to study the effects of weightlessness at a cellular and molecular level in a ground-based system. It was quickly noted that when anchorage-dependent cells were cultured in the RWV, they formed three-dimensional aggregates that resembled in vivo tissue. In subsequent years many investigators also demonstrated that these 3D aggregates were functionally more similar to native tissues than cells cultured in conventional 2D cell culture technology. The basic elements that govern the cell culture environment in the RWV conducive to 3D cell culture are the rotational speed of the vessel and the mass transfer of nutrients in the media.