Grafting of Porous Conductive Fiber Mats with an Antifouling Polymer Brush by Means of Filtration-Based Surface Initiated ATRP.

This work addresses the challenge of surface modification of porous, electrospun fiber mats containing an insoluble conducting polymer coating. Herein, a novel methodology of grafting a polymer brush onto conducting polymer fiber mats is developed that employs filtering of the polymerization solution through the fiber mat. An electrospun sulfonated polystyrene-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-polystyrene (sSEBS) fiber mat is first coated with a layer of conducting copolymer bearing an Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) initiating functionality (PEDOT-Br).

Probing Multicellular Tissue Fusion of Cocultured Spheroids-A 3D-Bioassembly Model.

While decades of research have enriched the knowledge of how to grow cells into mature tissues, little is yet known about the next phase: fusing of these engineered tissues into larger functional structures. The specific effect of multicellular interfaces on tissue fusion remains largely unexplored. Here, a facile 3D-bioassembly platform is introduced to primarily study fusion of cartilage-cartilage interfaces using spheroids formed from human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) and articular chondrocytes (hACs).

A Conductive Microfiltration Membrane for In Situ Fouling Detection: Proof-of-Concept Using Model Wine Solutions.

Cross-flow microfiltration, using a microporous membrane, is a well-established technique for wine clarification in oenology because of its cost-effectiveness and high-throughput. However, membrane fouling remains a significant issue for wine filtration in high-throughput systems. Herein, an approach for in situ real-time monitoring of fouling in filtration systems using a conductive filtration membrane and a model fluid for filtration is reported.

New Visible-Light Photoinitiating System for Improved Print Fidelity in Gelatin-Based Bioinks.

Oxygen inhibition is a phenomenon that directly impacts the print fidelity of 3D biofabricated and photopolymerized hydrogel constructs. It typically results in the undesirable physical collapse of fabricated constructs due to impaired cross-linking, and is an issue that generally remains unreported in the literature. In this study, we describe a systematic approach to minimizing oxygen inhibition in photopolymerized gelatin-methacryloyl (Gel-MA)-based hydrogel constructs, by comparing a new visible-light initiating system, Vis + ruthenium (Ru)/sodium persulfate (SPS) to more conventionally adopted ultraviolet (UV) + Irgacure 2959 system.

Quantitative imaging of excised osteoarthritic cartilage using spectral CT.

Objectives: To quantify iodine uptake in articular cartilage as a marker of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content using multi-energy spectral CT.

Methods: We incubated a 25-mm strip of excised osteoarthritic human tibial plateau in 50 % ionic iodine contrast and imaged it using a small-animal spectral scanner with a cadmium telluride photon-processing detector to quantify the iodine through the thickness of the articular cartilage. We imaged both spectroscopic phantoms and osteoarthritic tibial plateau samples.