Association between a quantitative CT scan measure of brain edema and outcome after cardiac arrest.

Background: Cerebral edema is one physical change associated with brain injury and decreased survival after cardiac arrest. Edema appears on computed tomography (CT) scan of the brain as decreased X-ray attenuation by gray matter. This study tested whether the gray matter attenuation to white matter attenuation ratio (GWR) was associated with survival and functional recovery.

Electrospun fibrous scaffolds with multiscale and photopatterned porosity.

The structural and mechanical properties of tissue engineered environments are crucial for successful cellular growth and tissue repair. Electrospinning is gaining wide attention for the fabrication of tissue engineered scaffolds, but the small pore sizes of these scaffolds limit cell infiltration and construct vascularization. To address this problem, we have combined electrospinning with photopatterning to create multiscale porous scaffolds.

Novel nano-composite biomaterials that respond to light.

Composites of nanoparticles and polymers are finding wide applications to alter material properties, conductivity, and utility. Here, we show that nano-composites can be designed to heat in the presence of near infrared light. This process is useful in transitioning materials through a transition temperature for a range of applications.

Biodegradable fibrous scaffolds with diverse properties by electrospinning candidates from a combinatorial macromer library.

The properties of electrospun fibrous scaffolds, including degradation, mechanics and cellular interactions, are important for their use in tissue engineering applications. Although some diversity has been obtained previously in fibrous scaffolds, optimization of scaffold properties relies on iterative techniques in both polymer synthesis and processing. Here, we electrospun candidates from a combinatorial library of biodegradable and photopolymerizable poly(beta-amino ester)s (PBAEs) to show that the diversity in properties found in this library is retained when processed into fibrous scaffolds.

Light-induced temperature transitions in biodegradable polymer and nanorod composites.

Shape-memory materials (including polymers, metals, and ceramics) are those that are processed into a temporary shape and respond to some external stimuli (e.g., temperature) to undergo a transition back to a permanent shape.

The potential to improve cell infiltration in composite fiber-aligned electrospun scaffolds by the selective removal of sacrificial fibers.

Aligned electrospun scaffolds are promising tools for engineering fibrous musculoskeletal tissues, as they reproduce the mechanical anisotropy of these tissues and can direct ordered neo-tissue formation. However, these scaffolds suffer from a slow cellular infiltration rate, likely due in part to their dense fiber packing. We hypothesized that cell ingress could be expedited in scaffolds by increasing porosity, while at the same time preserving overall scaffold anisotropy.