Contrast-Enhanced Microtomographic Characterisation of Vessels in Native Bone and Engineered Vascularised Grafts Using Ink-Gelatin Perfusion and Phosphotungstic Acid

Figure 1

Bone architecture and contrast-enhanced vessel visualisation in rat long bones. (a) Bone architecture of rat tibia (3D rendering) with compact bone (black arrows), trabecular structure (star), and epiphyseal gap (red arrow). (b) 3D rendering of contrast-enhanced scan showing diaphysis of a rat femur with contrasted central vessel (red arrows). (c) 2D slice of the data set shown in (b). Red pixels represent grey values typical for vessels. Vessel course (red arrow) and branching (white arrows) are clearly visible. (d) Length of contrasted central vessel. (e) Haematoxylin and eosin staining of mid-diaphysis of a rat femur showing bone (star), bone marrow (plus), ink-gelatin-filled (triangles), and empty (arrow) vessels. (f) Diameter of central vessel measured in histology and microtomography. (g) Histogram of tibial vessel diameters () showing a unimodal distribution, which is skewed left and wider for data from histology. Femoral vessel diameters display a similar distribution. (h) Closest distance of vessel center and bone measured in histology and microtomography.

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