Engineering of bone, cartilage, and osteochondral tissue offers promising alternative approaches for regenerative medicine as well as tools to study skeletal tissue developmental processes and disease models. To understand the electrotherapeutic factors and advance healing of musculoskeletal tissues, one needs to develop modalities for non-invasive, quantitative, multiscale imaging of the forming tissues. To date, there has not been a bioreactor system that allows real-time monitoring of clinically sized engineered tissues without sacrificing the samples or interfering with the cultivating condition, principally due to the size and portability of the culture system, and the fact that imaging systems are usually located in a separate facility. We propose to develop a new bioreactor system, which incorporates non-destructive imaging techniques to monitor bone, cartilage, and osteochondral tissue development in vitro. Our goal is to integrate separate efforts of two laboratories specializing in tissue engineering and radiological imaging toward the development of a portable, imaging- compatible bioreactor enabling quantitative on-line studies of complex cartilage/bone tissue constructs. We will rigorously test this hypothesis by studying bone formation by endochondral and intramembraneous ossification on a microscopic to macroscopic level.
Three specific aims will be pursued: (a) Development of a portable bioreactor integrated with imaging, (b) ?CT bioreactor studies of cartilage/bone formation, and (c) ?-PIXE bioreactor studies of cartilage/bone formation. The anticipated scientific impact will be in significant new insights into bone formation through the development of non-invasive quantitative imaging at multiple scales.

Public Health Relevance

Radically new approaches are necessary for advancing real-time insights into the progression of cartilage/bone formation. The proposed studies are designed to complement the goals of NIAMS, which include promoting research towards improved understanding of the factors and mechanisms involved in skeletal development, regeneration and disease. The project findings will result in new scientific data for bone formation, which can be translated into the development of novel electrotherapeutic devices for potential application in a range of regenerative medicine scenarios.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01AR061988-03S1
Application #
8583197
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAR1-KM (M1))
Program Officer
Wang, Fei
Project Start
2011-08-01
Project End
2016-07-31
Budget Start
2013-09-16
Budget End
2014-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$154,050
Indirect Cost
Name
Tufts University
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
073134835
City
Medford
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02155
Levin, Michael; Pietak, Alexis M; Bischof, Johanna (2018) Planarian regeneration as a model of anatomical homeostasis: Recent progress in biophysical and computational approaches. Semin Cell Dev Biol :
Herrera-Rincon, Celia; Golding, Annie S; Moran, Kristine M et al. (2018) Brief Local Application of Progesterone via a Wearable Bioreactor Induces Long-Term Regenerative Response in Adult Xenopus Hindlimb. Cell Rep 25:1593-1609.e7
Ng, Johnathan; Wei, Yiyong; Zhou, Bin et al. (2018) Ectopic implantation of juvenile osteochondral tissues recapitulates endochondral ossification. J Tissue Eng Regen Med 12:468-478
Pai, Vaibhav P; Pietak, Alexis; Willocq, Valerie et al. (2018) HCN2 Rescues brain defects by enforcing endogenous voltage pre-patterns. Nat Commun 9:998
McLaughlin, Kelly A; Levin, Michael (2018) Bioelectric signaling in regeneration: Mechanisms of ionic controls of growth and form. Dev Biol 433:177-189
Estell, Eben G; Murphy, Lance A; Silverstein, Amy M et al. (2017) Fibroblast-like synoviocyte mechanosensitivity to fluid shear is modulated by interleukin-1?. J Biomech 60:91-99
Ng, Johnathan; Spiller, Kara; Bernhard, Jonathan et al. (2017) Biomimetic Approaches for Bone Tissue Engineering. Tissue Eng Part B Rev 23:480-493
O'Connell, Grace D; Tan, Andrea R; Cui, Victoria et al. (2017) Human chondrocyte migration behaviour to guide the development of engineered cartilage. J Tissue Eng Regen Med 11:877-886
Herrera-Rincon, Celia; Pai, Vaibhav P; Moran, Kristine M et al. (2017) The brain is required for normal muscle and nerve patterning during early Xenopus development. Nat Commun 8:587
Mathews, Juanita; Levin, Michael (2017) Gap junctional signaling in pattern regulation: Physiological network connectivity instructs growth and form. Dev Neurobiol 77:643-673

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