Abstract
In tissue engineering, cells are generally cultured in biomaterials to generate three-dimensional artificial tissues to repair or replace damaged parts and re-establish normal functions of the body. Characterizing cell growth and viability in these bioscaffolds is challenging, and is currently achieved by destructive end-point biological assays. In this study, we explore the potential to use electrical impedance tomography (EIT) as a label-free and non-destructive technology to assess cell growth and viability. The key challenge in the tissue engineering application is to detect the small change of conductivity associated with sparse cell distributions in regards to the size of the hosting scaffold, i.e., low volume fraction, until they assemble into a larger tissue-like structure. We show proof-of-principle data, measure cells within both a hydrogel and a microporous scaffold with an ad-hoc EIT equipment, and introduce the frequency difference technique to improve the reconstruction.
Highlights
Tissue engineering aims to generate artificial tissues and organs to repair or replace damaged tissues in body [1]
The sensor containing the cell-encapsulated hydrogel sample or scaffold sample was placed in the incubator during the imaging measurements
Blank hydrogels scaffolds were placed into the sensor andmeasurements measured under wereconditions
Summary
Tissue engineering aims to generate artificial tissues and organs to repair or replace damaged tissues in body [1]. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and micro computed tomography (micro CT) are popular techniques in the field of tissue engineering, and together with confocal and multiphoton microscopy, they have greatly helped us to improve our understanding of tissue formation and cell–material interactions These techniques require fixing and cutting the tissues to perform histology staining, and the samples cannot be used in further studies. MTT and MTS cell proliferation assays are alternative techniques to evaluate the cell viability in the biomaterials These assays are time-consuming and require dyeing [3], so that they cannot perform a real-time and label-free assessment of cell viability in large samples, which will be valuable to control the quality of the artificial tissue before implanting it in the body, without having to use fluorescents or radioactive labels
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