A Method to Extract the Complete Fiber Network Topology of Planar Fibrous Tissues and Scaffolds

Improving fabrication protocols and design strategies, investigating on how fibrous ECM and synthetic architectures affect cell morphology, metabolism and phenotypic expression, predicting mechanical behaviors, have increasingly become crucial goals in the understanding of native tissues and in the development of engineered tissue. In the present study, an image-based analysis approach that provides an automatic tool to fully characterize engineered tissue fiber network topology was developed. The following micro architectural features were detected: fiber angle distribution, fiber connectivity, fiber overlap spatial density, and fiber diameter. In order to demonstrate the potential of this approach Electrospun poly(ester urethane)urea (ES-PEUU) scaffolds were studied. Electrospun scaffolds were chosen for their recognized capability to recapitulate native soft tissue extra cellular matrix (ECM) morphology.