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Three‐dimensional pore structure analysis of Nano/Microfibrous scaffolds using confocal laser scanning microscopy
Author(s) -
Bagherzadeh Roohollah,
Latifi Masoud,
Najar Saeed Shaikhzadeh,
Tehran Mohammad Amani,
Kong Lingxue
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.34379
Subject(s) - materials science , confocal laser scanning microscopy , porosity , interconnectivity , capillary action , confocal microscopy , scaffold , biomedical engineering , laser scanning , confocal , nano , microscopy , nanotechnology , scanning electron microscope , composite material , laser , optics , computer science , medicine , physics , artificial intelligence
Specific internal pore architectures are required to provide the needed biological and biophysical functions for fibrous scaffolds as these architectures are critical to cell infiltration and in‐grows performance. However, the key challenging on evaluating 3D pore structure of fibrous scaffolds for better understanding the capability of different structures for biological application is not well investigated. This article reports a fast, accurate, nondestructive, and comprehensive evaluation approach based on confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and three‐dimensional image analysis to study the pore structure and porosity parameters of Nano/Microfibrous scaffolds. Also a new method of making the fiber fluorescent using quantum dots (QDs) was applied before 3D imaging. Fibrous scaffolds with different porosity parameters produced by electrospinning and their 3D‐pore structure was evaluated by this approach and the results were compared to results of capillary flow porometry. The pore structural properties measured in this approach are in good agreement with that measured by the capillary flow porometry (with significant level 0.05). Furthermore, the introduced approach can measure the pore interconnectivity of the scaffold. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 101A: 765–774, 2013.