Non-destructive assessment of cell repopulation in scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration through X-ray phase-contrast microtomography

通过 X 射线相差显微断层扫描对骨软骨再生支架中的细胞增殖进行无损评估

• 批准号: 2872729
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2872729
• 关键词: Non; destructive; assessment; cell; repopulation

Osteochondral tissue engineering is an expanding field aiming to understand and repair the enthesis between cartilage and bone. One major challenge in this process is the characterization of the three-dimensional scaffolds and their interaction with cells, particularly as most available imaging techniques use either 2D or sample-destructive approaches. X-rays are unique in their ability to prove volumes of opaque tissue with depth penetration and high resolution non-destructively. They usually provide good contrast when the details of interest are of different atomic compositions to the background, however, when contrast is needed between similar types of tissue the lack of differences in attenuation prevents the conventional approaches to microtomography from being effective. We proposed investigating X-ray phase contrast imaging techniques to overcome a roadblock in developing these types of constructs by providing a non-destructive inspection technology capable of visualising cell migration and scaffold repopulation. The project will involve a bottom-up development of the imaging methodology, specifically targeting the challenges posed by these samples. Experiments will follow for demonstrating the new approach's capabilities and its integration into osteochondral regeneration research workflows. Once established the methodology will be made available to researchers from Industry and Academia through the National Research Facility for X-ray Tomography.

骨软骨组织工程是一个扩展的场，旨在了解和修复软骨和骨骼之间的特征。在此过程中，一个主要的挑战是三维支架的表征及其与细胞的相互作用，尤其是因为大多数可用的成像技术都使用2D或样品造成的方法。 X射线具有独特的能力，可以证明具有深度渗透和高分辨率的不透明组织的体积。当感兴趣的细节与背景不同时，它们通常会提供良好的对比度，但是，当需要在类似类型的组织之间进行对比时，缺乏衰减的差异会阻止传统的微传统方法有效。我们提出了调查X射线相对比成像技术，以通过提供能够可视化细胞迁移和脚手架再现的非破坏性检查技术来克服开发这些类型构建体的障碍。该项目将涉及成像方法的自下而上的发展，特别针对这些样品所带来的挑战。实验将遵循，以证明新方法的功能及其整合到骨软骨再生研究工作流程中。建立后，该方法将通过国家和学术界的研究人员通过国家X射线断层扫描机构提供。