Crumple zone effect of nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses on posterior cranial fossa.

Objectives/hypothesis: Examine a protective crumple zone effect of paranasal sinuses and nasal cavity on skull base fractures.

Study Design: Randomized-control, cadaveric study.

Methods: In the experimental group (n = 4), the nasal cavity and bilateral sinuses of cadavers were obliterated with bone cement, whereas the control group (n = 4) had native sinus architecture.

Assessing neural stem cell motility using an agarose gel-based microfluidic device.

While microfluidic technology is reaching a new level of maturity for macromolecular assays, cell-based assays are still at an infant stage. This is largely due to the difficulty with which one can create a cell-compatible and steady microenvironment using conventional microfabrication techniques and materials. We address this problem via the introduction of a novel microfabrication material, agarose gel, as the base material for the microfluidic device.

Computer-aided tissue engineering: overview, scope and challenges.

Advances in computer-aided technology and its application with biology, engineering and information science to tissue engineering have evolved a new field of computer-aided tissue engineering (CATE). This emerging field encompasses computer-aided design (CAD), image processing, manufacturing and solid free-form fabrication (SFF) for modelling, designing, simulation and manufacturing of biological tissue and organ substitutes. The present Review describes some salient advances in this field, particularly in computer-aided tissue modeling, computer-aided tissue informatics and computer-aided tissue scaffold design and fabrication.

Computer-aided tissue engineering: application to biomimetic modelling and design of tissue scaffolds.

Computer-aided tissue engineering (CATE) enables many novel approaches in modelling, design and fabrication of complex tissue substitutes with enhanced functionality and improved cell-matrix interactions. Central to CATE is its bio-tissue informatics model that represents tissue biological, biomechanical and biochemical information that serves as a central repository to interface design, simulation and tissue fabrication. The present paper discusses the application of a CATE approach to the biomimetic design of bone tissue scaffold.