Abstract
In tissue engineering, scaffolds are a key component that possess a highly elaborate pore structure. Careful characterisation of such porous structures enables the prediction of a variety of large-scale biological responses. In this work, a rapid, efficient, and accurate methodology for 2D bulk porous structure analysis is proposed. The algorithm, “GAKTpore”, creates a morphology map allowing quantification and visualisation of spatial feature variation. The software achieves 99.6% and 99.1% mean accuracy for pore diameter and shape factor identification, respectively. There are two main algorithm novelties within this work: (1) feature-dependant homogeneity map; (2) a new waviness function providing insights into the convexity/concavity of pores, important for understanding the influence on cell adhesion and proliferation. The algorithm is applied to foam structures, providing a full characterisation of a 10 mm diameter SEM micrograph (14,784 × 14,915 px) with 190,249 pores in ~9 min and has elucidated new insights into collagen scaffold formation by relating microstructural formation to the bulk formation environment. This novel porosity characterisation algorithm demonstrates its versatility, where accuracy, repeatability, and time are paramount. Thus, GAKTpore offers enormous potential to optimise and enhance scaffolds within tissue engineering.
Highlights
The ultimate goal in tissue engineering is to replicate native environments, allowing optimised regeneration of tissues
Significant evidence suggests that cells within a tissue engineering scaffold, align their extra-cellular matrix (ECM) to the scaffold structure [1,2,3,4]
The GAKTpore algorithm demonstrates an excellent level of confidence with a mean accuracy of 99.6% for 8 synthetic images
Summary
The ultimate goal in tissue engineering is to replicate native environments, allowing optimised regeneration of tissues. Difficulties arise due to the heterogeneous structure of tissues, where each tissue has its own three-dimensional extra-cellular matrix (ECM). Significant evidence suggests that cells within a tissue engineering scaffold, align their ECM to the scaffold structure [1,2,3,4]. Several chemical and biological phenomena, including nutrient diffusion and migration of cells are heavily dependent on pore size and connectivity [4]. Significant effort is spent on design optimisation of tissue engineered scaffolds, but without thorough characterisation of produced structures, it is impossible to correlate structure with cellular response [5]. An extensive variety of materials have been considered for tissue engineering, taking into account chemical and biological response and the mechanical and structural performance of the tissue they intend to repair or replace. An extensive variety of materials have been considered for tissue engineering, taking into account chemical and biological response and the mechanical and structural performance of the tissue they intend to repair or replace. [6,7]
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