Patent ID: 7878786

Claim:
An apparatus for producing a tubular tissue scaffold having aligned biopolymer fibrils and defining a tube wall about a luminal space, the apparatus comprising: a biopolymer gel dispersion feed pump; a counter-rotating cone extruder comprising an external rotating member having a cone-shaped cavity therethrough and an internal rotating cone which fits within the cone-shaped cavity of the external rotating member, wherein the external rotating member and the internal rotating cone terminate near the apex of the cones to form an annular-shaped exit port, the external rotating member and the internal rotating cone comprising a bearing-quality polymeric resin, and wherein the biopolymer gel dispersion feed pump is operably connected to the counter-rotating cone extruder such that the counter-rotating cone extruder produces a tubular tissue scaffold from the biopolymer gel dispersion exiting the exit port while providing an angular shear force across the wall of the tubular tissue scaffold; a liquid bath located to receive the tubular tissue scaffold from the counter-rotating cone extruder; a controlled atmosphere chamber enclosing the exit port of the counter-rotating cone extruder and the liquid bath; and a gas source that is interconnected to provide for the addition of gas to the luminal space of the tubular tissue scaffold exiting the exit port.