Emulsion-free chitosan-genipin microgels for growth plate cartilage regeneration.

The growth plate is a cartilage tissue near the ends of children's long bones and is responsible for bone growth. Injury to the growth plate can result in the formation of a 'bony bar' which can span the growth plate and result in bone growth abnormalities in children. Biomaterials such as chitosan microgels could be a potential treatment for growth plate injuries due to their chondrogenic properties, which can be enhanced through loading with biologics.

A Rat Tibial Growth Plate Injury Model to Characterize Repair Mechanisms and Evaluate Growth Plate Regeneration Strategies.

A third of all pediatric fractures involve the growth plate and can result in impaired bone growth. The growth plate (or physis) is cartilage tissue found at the end of all long bones in children that is responsible for longitudinal bone growth. Once damaged, cartilage tissue within the growth plate can undergo premature ossification and lead to unwanted bony repair tissue, which forms a "bony bar.

Injectable and microporous scaffold of densely-packed, growth factor-encapsulating chitosan microgels.

In this work, an emulsion crosslinking method was developed to produce chitosan-genipin microgels which acted as an injectable and microporous scaffold. Chitosan was characterized with respect to pH by light scattering and aqueous titration. Microgels were characterized with swelling, light scattering, and rheometry of densely-packed microgel solutions.

Understanding and overcoming shear alignment of fibers during extrusion.

Fiber alignment is the defining architectural characteristic of discontinuous fiber composites and is dictated by shear-dominated processing techniques including flow-injection molding, tape-casting, and mold-casting. However, recent colloidal assembly techniques have started to employ additional forces in fiber suspensions that have the potential to change the energy landscape of the shear-dominated alignment in conditions of flow. In this paper, we develop an energetics model to characterize the shear-alignment of rigid fibers under different flow conditions in the presence of magnetic colloidal alignment forces.

Interpreting dual ELISA and qPCR data for bacterial kidney disease of salmonids.

Although there are a variety of methods available for the detection of Renibacterium salmoninarum, the causative agent of bacterial kidney disease in salmon and trout, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is probably the most widely used method. However, ELISA measures bacterial antigen, which does not necessarily reflect the number of cells present. We hypothesized that dual analysis of kidney tissue by ELISA and a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay (qPCR) would provide complementary information about antigen level and the number of bacterial genomes.