An in vitro spinal cord injury model to screen neuroregenerative materials.

Implantable 'structural bridges' based on nanofabricated polymer scaffolds have great promise to aid spinal cord regeneration. Their development (optimal formulations, surface functionalizations, safety, topographical influences and degradation profiles) is heavily reliant on live animal injury models. These have several disadvantages including invasive surgical procedures, ethical issues, high animal usage, technical complexity and expense.

Alignment of multiple glial cell populations in 3D nanofiber scaffolds: toward the development of multicellular implantable scaffolds for repair of neural injury.

Unlabelled: Non-neuronal cells of the central nervous system (CNS), termed "neuroglia," play critical roles in neural regeneration; therefore, replacement of glial populations via implantable nanofabricated devices (providing a growth-permissive niche) is a promising strategy to enhance repair. Most constructs developed to date have lacked three-dimensionality, multiple glial populations and control over spatial orientations, limiting their ability to mimic in vivo neurocytoarchitecture. We describe a facile technique to incorporate multiple glial cell populations [astrocytes, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and oligodendrocytes] within a three-dimensional (3D) nanofabricated construct.

Study of optical properties and proteoglycan content of tendons by polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography.

The highly orientated collagen fibers in tendons play a critical role for transferring tensile stress, and they demonstrate birefringent optical properties. However, the influence that proteoglycans (PGs) have on the optical properties of tendons is yet to be fully elucidated. PGs are the essential components of the tendon extracellular matrix; the changes in their quantities and compositions have been associated with tendinopathies.

Utilizing a -100 degrees C microplate CCD Imager, yttrium silicate coated 384-microplates and ultra-performance liquid chromatography for improved profiling of radiolabeled drug metabolites in complex biological samples.

The recent commercial availability of small particle packed columns (<2 microm) and associated instrumentation capable of withstanding the high pressures of such columns, has lead to an increase in the application of so called ultra-performance liquid chromatography. The improved efficiency, resolution and peak capacity of these columns, when coupled to mass spectrometry, provides particular benefit for the identification of drug metabolites in complex biological samples. In this work, the ability of ViewLux, a microplate imager, to act as a suitable radiodetection system for ultra-performance liquid chromatography methods is assessed.