Monitoring the performance of tissue engineering bioreactors using magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy
- Abstract:
- The NMR-based methods described here are able to evaluate local changes in cell density and metabolic activity, perfusion and flow velocities within a functional engineered tissue. The application of NMR techniques is particularly attractive in the context of bioartificial organs. The application of such techniques over the past 25 years to the study of intact biological systems, including man, has generated a wealth of data, including spectroscopic and imaging profiles of healthy and diseased tissues. This database is a valuable tool that can be used to assess the performance of cells from a given tissue, when incorporated into a bioartificial organ, and/or the physical and morphological properties of an engineered tissue as compared to its native counterpart. This approach could be useful, for example, for monitoring the progress of skin grafts, or to assess GAG and collagen contents locally in a repair site within articular or meniscal cartilage. The possibility of using the same suite of techniques both in vitro, during the production stage of the tissue, and in vivo, post implantation, is probably unique to NMR and represents a tremendous advantage of this technique. © 2005 Springer.