Biocolor ECM Assays Used to Evaluate Architecture-Inspired Biomaterials

Introduction

What does reinforced concrete have to do with tissue engineering?

Pulling inspiration from architectural engineering, researchers have developed mechanically reinforced biotubes for arterial replacement and arteriovenous grafting.

Publication

In efforts to bioengineer an alternative to autologous graft vessels, researchers were inspired by the architectural engineering method of embedding steel supports into concrete for tunnel construction.

In the study recently published in Science Advances, researchers (Dengke Zhi et al.) used melt-spinning and heat treatment to fabricate poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) fiber skeletons (PSs). The PSs were subcutaneously embedded to induce the assembly of host cells and extracellular matrix to obtain PS-reinforced biotubes. The biotubes demonstrated superior performance when evaluated by in vitro mechanical testing and following implantation in rat abdominal artery replacement models.

Citation

This content has been adapted from the paper cited below. You can find the entire paper via the link:

Zhi, Dengke et al. “Mechanically reinforced biotubes for arterial replacement and arteriovenous grafting inspired by architectural engineering.” Science advances vol. 8,11 (2022): eabl3888. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abl3888

Product Spotlight

The mentioned study used the Biocolor extracellular matrix (ECM) assays below to quantify ECM remodeling in preclinical models:

• Blyscan™ Glycosaminoglycan Assay
• A quantitative dye-binding method for the analysis of sulfated proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans (sGAG).
  
  The assay can be used to measure the total sGAG content and can also be adopted to determine the O- and N-sulfated glycosaminoglycan ratio within test samples.

• Fastin™ Elastin Assay
• A quantitative dye-binding method for the analysis of elastins released into tissue culture medium and extracted from biological materials.

• Sircol™ Soluble Collagen Assay
• A quantitative assay for measurement of both acid-soluble and pepsin-soluble collagens.
  
  This dye-binding method using Sirius Red dye can monitor collagen produced in situ, or during in-vitro cell culture. It can also measure in-vitro extracellular matrix formation