The engineering of ECM in vitro is a critical area of research in tissue engineering. Cells respond to mechanical stimuli and regulate the metabolic functions via mechanotransduction and synthesise ECM. This paper reviews key pathways. In vitro studies of mechanotransduction on macroscopic tissues in specialised automated bioreactors that are capable of mimicking the physiological environment by applying different loads will help us to examine how mechanical loads influence intracellular signalling, subsequent behaviour of cells and the synthesis of ECM components.