Synthetic Tissue Scaffolds
Recent developments in biomaterials technology have enabled the production of biodegradable, cytocompatible tissue scaffolds that can be tailored with appropriate mechanical and biological signals to restore damaged tissue in specific sites in the body. See the micro-CT synthetic tissue scaffolds below that our lab has produced.
Sponge
Understanding the architecture of sea sponges has the potential to produce better design of porous, cell-populated, synthetic tissue scaffolds. Pore geometry affects depth and distribution of the solute transport needed to sustain the cells lining the pores. To explore these two aspects we need accurate 3D measurements of pore architecture and interconnectivity. Three-dimensional micro-CT imaging can be used to characterize the desired micro architecture labyrinthine pore structure of a sea sponge.
The sea sponge was dried, and then scanned.
Calcium Hydroxyapatite Phantom
The BD* 3D Calcium Phosphate Scaffold is a proprietary mineralized calcium phosphate bioceramic that was used as a reference material to study and compare the repeatability of Micro-CT imaging from session to session at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY.
Salt Leaching Scaffold
Pore interconnectivity within scaffolds is an important parameter influencing cell migration and tissue in growth needed to promote tissue regeneration. Scaffolds were made via a particulate leaching process with 75%, 80%, 85%, and 88% volumetric porogen fractions. The relationship between accessible void fraction and connection size varied as a function of porogen content. The interconnectivity parameter described here may have implications for cell migration and tissue growth into scaffolds.
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 71A:258-267,2004
Printed Scaffold
An ink-jet-like printer that incrementally builds up a 3D pattern of scaffold material was used to generate this synthetic scaffold.
