Tissue Preservation, Life care and Biobanking (B2B & Networking)

The evaluation of engineered tissues is usually performed by light microscopy on one or more histological sections. Th is conventional analysis provides only bi-dimensional (2D) information with the consequent risk that the selected sections do not properly represent the entire biopsies. In recent years there has been an increasing interest in a novel approach to evaluate diff erent engineered tissues by means of synchrotron micro-tomography (SCT). Using SCT, tissue regeneration subsequent to graft ing hosting sites with diff erent types of biomaterials (with or without stem cells seeding) was recently explored. SCT was shown to be fundamental to explore the dynamic and spatial distribution of regenerative phenomena, also in complex anatomic structures. Traditionally, absorption imaging with SCT is conducted with almost no distance between sample and detector. Homogeneous materials with a low attenuation coeffi  cient (like collagen, unmineralized extracellular matrix, vessels, nerves, etc.) or heterogeneous materials with a narrow range of attenuation coeffi  cients (like the case of heterologous bone scaff olds or graded mineralized bone) produce insuffi  cient contrast for absorption imaging. For such materials, the imaging quality can be enhanced through the use of phase contrast tomography (PCT), oft en achieved with an increased distance between sample and detector (propagation-based imaging). In the present lecture, the most recent breakthroughs in regenerative medicine will be shown, demonstrating the unique capabilities of the SCT in off ering not only an advanced characterization of diff erent biomaterials (to understand the mechanism of their biological behavior as tissue substitute) but also to investigate the growth kinetics of regenerated tissues in diff erent environments.