虚拟手术仿真中人体软组织形变技术的研究

对虚拟手术仿真中人体软组织形变技术进行深入研究,利用OpenGL三维图形标准建立了基于质点-弹簧物理模型的虚拟人体软组织形变系统。围绕虚拟手术仿真中人体软组织形变的逼真度和实时性两大要素展开研究,通过对比四边形网格结构提出了改进的基于质点-弹簧模型的正六边形几何拓扑结构,并对软组织形变动力学模型及其数值积分算法、软组织形变力反馈计算模型进行了讨论,针对以往的虚拟手术器械与软组织表面接触时作用点的最近邻质点求取算法存在的不足,提出了改进的求取算法。实验结果表明,改进的算法在模拟软组织形变时具有较好的稳定性和实时性。     

Marine-Derived Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

Marine organisms provide novel and broad sources for the preparations and applications of biomaterials. Since the urgent requirement of bio-hydrogels to mimic tissue extracellular matrix (ECM), the natural biomacromolecule hydrogels derived from marine sources have received increasing attention. Benefiting from their outstanding bioactivity and biocompatibility, many attempts have been made to reconstruct ECM components by applying marine-derived natural hydrogels. Moreover, marine hydrogels have been successfully applied in biomedicine by means of microfluidics, electrospray, and bioprinting. In this review, the classification and characteristics of marine-derived hydrogels are summarized. In particular, their role in the development of biomaterials is also introduced. Then, the recent advances in bio-fabrication strategies for various hydrogel materials are focused upon. Besides, the influences of hydrogel types on their functions in biomedical applications are discussed in depth. Finally, critical reflections on the limitations and future development of marine-derived hydrogels are presented.     

Multiphoton Lithography as a Promising Tool for Biomedical Applications

Multiphoton lithography (MPL) is a powerful and useful structuring tool capable of generating 2D and 3D arbitrary micro- and nanometer features of various materials with high spatial resolution down to nm-scale. This technology has received tremendous interest in tissue engineering and medical device manufacturing, due to its ability to print sophisticated structures, which is difficult to achieve through traditional printing methods. Thorough consideration of two-photon photoinitiators (PIs) and photoreactive biomaterials is key to the fabrication of such complex 3D micro- and nanostructures. In the current review, different types of two-photon PIs are discussed for their use in biomedical applications. Next, an overview of biomaterials (both natural and synthetic polymers) along with their crosslinking mechanisms is provided. Finally, biomedical applications exploiting MPL are presented, including photocleaving and photopatterning strategies, biomedical devices, tissue engineering, organoids, organ-on-chip, and photodynamic therapy. This review offers a helicopter view on the use of MPL technology in the biomedical field and defines the necessary considerations toward selection or design of PIs and photoreactive biomaterials to serve a multitude of biomedical applications.     

Three Potential Elements of Developing Nerve Guidance Conduit for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Autograft replaced by a nerve guidance conduit (NGC) is challenging in peripheral nerve injury because current NGC is still limited by precise conductivity and excellent biocompatibility in vivo, which influences the peripheral nerve repair even for a long lesion gap repair. Several particular elements have the potential function for nerve conductivity acceleration based on the traditional three factors of neural tissue engineering. The review aims to address three questions: 1) What is the superior factor for nerve conduction in the application? 2) How can a more conductive regenerative scaffold be constructed in vivo? 3) What is the next step in nerve regeneration for NGC? The bibliometrics analysis of NGC-related references is adopted to acquire that the conductive material, manufacturing technology of neural scaffold, and electrical stimulation (ES) play essential roles in the acceleration of nerve conduction. This review visually analyses the research status and summarizes the main types of conductive materials, the manufacturing technologies of neural scaffolds, and the characteristics of ES. The viewpoints and outlook of developing NGC are also discussed in this review. The proposed three elements are expected to improve the nerve conduction of NGC in vivo and even address the dilemma of long-distance peripheral nerve injury.     

Microscale Electro‐Hydrodynamic Cell Printing with High Viability

Cell printing has gained extensive attentions for the controlled fabrication of living cellular constructs in vitro. Various cell printing techniques are now being explored and developed for improved cell viability and printing resolution. Here an electro‐hydrodynamic cell printing strategy is developed with microscale resolution (<100 µm) and high cellular viability (>95%). Unlike the existing electro‐hydrodynamic cell jetting or printing explorations, insulating substrate is used to replace conventional semiconductive substrate as the collecting surface which significantly reduces the electrical current in the electro‐hydrodynamic printing process from milliamperes (>0.5 mA) to microamperes (<10 µA). Additionally, the nozzle‐to‐collector distance is fixed as small as 100 µm for better control over filament deposition. These features ensure high cellular viability and normal postproliferative capability of the electro‐hydrodynamically printed cells. The smallest width of the electro‐hydrodynamically printed hydrogel filament is 82.4 ± 14.3 µm by optimizing process parameters. Multiple hydrogels or multilayer cell‐laden constructs can be flexibly printed under cell‐friendly conditions. The printed cells in multilayer hydrogels kept alive and gradually spread during 7‐days culture in vitro. This exploration offers a novel and promising cell printing strategy which might benefit future biomedical innovations such as microscale tissue engineering, organ‐on‐a‐chip systems, and nanomedicine.     

Anisotropic Materials for Skeletal‐Muscle‐Tissue Engineering

Repair of damaged skeletal‐muscle tissue is limited by the regenerative capacity of the native tissue. Current clinical approaches are not optimal for the treatment of large volumetric skeletal‐muscle loss. As an alternative, tissue engineering represents a promising approach for the functional restoration of damaged muscle tissue. A typical tissue‐engineering process involves the design and fabrication of a scaffold that closely mimics the native skeletal‐muscle extracellular matrix (ECM), allowing organization of cells into a physiologically relevant 3D architecture. In particular, anisotropic materials that mimic the morphology of the native skeletal‐muscle ECM, can be fabricated using various biocompatible materials to guide cell alignment, elongation, proliferation, and differentiation into myotubes. Here, an overview of fundamental concepts associated with muscle‐tissue engineering and the current status of muscle‐tissue‐engineering approaches is provided. Recent advances in the development of anisotropic scaffolds with micro‐ or nanoscale features are reviewed, and how scaffold topographical, mechanical, and biochemical cues correlate to observed cellular function and phenotype development is examined. Finally, some recent developments in both the design and utility of anisotropic materials in skeletal‐muscle‐tissue engineering are highlighted, along with their potential impact on future research and clinical applications.     

Spatial Micropatterning of Growth Factors in 3D Hydrogels for Location‐Specific Regulation of Cellular Behaviors

Growth factors are potent stimuli for regulating cell function in tissue engineering strategies, but spatially patterning their presentation in 3D in a facile manner using a single material is challenging. Micropatterning is an attractive tool to modulate the cellular microenvironment with various biochemical and physical cues and study their effects on stem cell behaviors. Implementing heparin's ability to immobilize growth factors, dual‐crosslinkable alginate hydrogels are micropatterned in 3D with photocrosslinkable heparin substrates with various geometries and micropattern sizes, and their capability to establish 3D micropatterns of growth factors within the hydrogels is confirmed. This 3D micropatterning method could be applied to various heparin binding growth factors, such as fibroblast growth factor‐2, vascular endothelial growth factor, transforming growth factor‐betas and bone morphogenetic proteins while retaining the hydrogel's natural degradability and cytocompability. Stem cells encapsulated within these micropatterned hydrogels have exhibited spatially localized growth and differentiation responses corresponding to various growth factor patterns, demonstrating the versatility of the approach in controlling stem cell behavior for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.     

超声背散射信息熵成像评价脂肪肝的新方法

提出超声背散射Tsallis信息熵成像评价脂肪肝的新方法。利用滑动窗口法,估算窗口内局部背散射包络信号的Tsallis信息熵参数值,对信息熵参数值矩阵进行扫描变换、颜色映射及感兴趣区域设置,叠加到超声B模式图像,实现Tsallis信息熵成像。分析72名肝脏捐献者和204名患者的超声背散射信号,参考标准分别为磁共振波谱测得的肝脏脂肪分数(Hepatic Fat Fraction, HFF)和肝活检组织学检查测得的脂肪肝程度。对于72名肝脏捐献者,Tsallis信息熵与lg(HFF)的相关系数r=0.67(P<0.000 1)。对于204名患者,受试者工作特征曲线下面积分别为0.82、0.88、0.89(≥轻度、≥中度、≥重度),而超声背散射零差K成像分别为0.76、0.82、0.82。超声背散射Tsallis信息熵成像可以直观定征并定量评价脂肪肝的严重程度,其诊断性能优于超声背散射零差K成像,可作为一种超声评价脂肪肝的新方法。