Observation and quantification of chondrocyte aggregation behavior on fibroin surfaces using Voronoi partition.

Cell migration is one of the fundamental processes in histogenesis, and it is necessary to investigate such multicellular behavior quantitatively in cell regeneration studies. In this study, Voronoi diagram analysis was first confirmed in simulation testing, and then used to evaluate the multicellular behavior of chondrocytes on three different substrates: (1) wild-type fibroin (FIB); (2) L-RGDSx2 transgenic fibroin; (3) and collagen. The indices for the round factor average, round factor homogeneity, and area disorder (AD), calculated from Voronoi diagram analysis, were used to characterize the difference in spatiotemporal changes for the different chondrocyte populations, and a regression analysis of the AD index was used to measure the speed of cell aggregation.

Chondrocyte distribution and cartilage regeneration in silk fibroin sponge.

Chondrocytes distribution and cartilage formation in three types of fibroin sponges with different average pore sizes (40-80, 80-120 and 100-140 μm) was measured. The image processing was performed combining two methods to identify cells automatically: extraction of local maximum luminance and multi-threshold analysis. The results showed that initial accumulation of chondrocytes localized at surface area at 3 h in the small and medium-pore groups, however, the difference in the cell distributions become equivalent until 24 h after seeding.

Observation of chondrocyte aggregate formation and internal structure on micropatterned fibroin-coated surface.

Condensation/aggregation process of rabbit-derived chondrocytes on a fibroin-coated patterned substrate was observed to estimate initial aggregation process in fibroin sponge. Chondrocytes were seeded on array of 160 microm diameter pits in three densities: 5 cells/pit (2.5 x 10(4) cells/cm(2), LOW), 15 cells/pit (7.