Macroporous hydrogel scaffolds and their characterization by optical coherence tomography.
A simple porogen-leaching method to fabricate macroporous cyclic acetal hydrogel cell scaffolds is presented. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was applied for nondestructive imaging and quantitative characterization of the scaffold structures. High-resolution OCT reveals the microstructures of the engineered tissue scaffolds in three dimensions. It also enables subsequent image processing to investigate quantitatively several key morphological design parameters for macroporous scaffolds, including the volume porosity, pore interconnectivity, and pore size. Two image-processing algorithms were adapted: three-dimensional labeling was applied to assess the interconnectivity, and erosion was applied to assess the pore size. Scaffolds with different design parameters were imaged, characterized, and compared. OCT imaging and image processing successfully discriminated scaffolds made from different formulations in terms of volume porosity, interconnectivity, and pore size. The cell viability and their spread across the scaffolds were confirmed by the fluorescence microscopy co-registered with OCT.
Chen
Chao-Wei
CW
1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA. yuchen@umd.edu
Betz
Martha W
MW
Fisher
John P
JP
Paek
Andrew
A
Chen
Yu
Y
D000465:Algorithms; D002470:Cell Survival; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D012038:Regeneration; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence
D020100:Hydrogels; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols