Micro-Vessels-Like 3D Scaffolds for Studying the Proton Radiobiology of Glioblastoma-Endothelial Cells Co-Culture Models

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating cancer of the brain with an extremely poor prognosis. While X-ray radiotherapy and chemotherapy remain the current standard, proton beam therapy is an appealing alternative as protons can damage cancer cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. However, the effects of protons on in vitro GBM models...

Microfluidic evidence of synergistic effects between mesenchymal stromal cell-derived biochemical factors and biomechanical forces to control endothelial cell function

A functional vascular system is a prerequisite for bone repair as disturbed angiogenesis often causes non-union. Paracrine factors released from human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) have angiogenic effects on endothelial cells. However, whether these paracrine factors participate in blood flow dynamics within bone...

Deep learning for assessing the corneal endothelium from specular microscopy images up to 1 year after ultrathin-dsaek surgery

Purpose: To present a fully automatic method to estimate the corneal endothelium parameters from specular microscopy images and to use it to study a one-year follow-up after ultrathin Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty. Methods: We analyzed 383 post ultrathin Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty images from...

Heart-on-chip: functional lipoprotein lipase (LPL) expression in co-cultures of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells

Introduction | Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the number one cause of death worldwide. Individuals with a high risk of developing CVD are nowadays mainly treated with cholesterol lowering drugs. Although disease risk can be lowered by a maximum of 40% in this way, a significant untreatable residual risk is left. Therefore, there is a big...

Osteogenic and angiogenic properties of strontium incorporated titanium implants

In the current day and age, osteogenic bone implants are important to reduce healing time and infections after bone implantation. To help induce bone formation, the implant surface can be biofunctionalized with different agents. A promising surface modification technique used to treat titanium implants is Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO). In...

Mathematical modelling of angiogenesis using continuous cell-based models

In this work, we develop a mathematical formalism based on a 3D in vitro model that is used to simulate the early stages of angiogenesis. The model treats cells as individual entities that are migrating as a result of chemotaxis and durotaxis. The phenotypes used here are endothelial cells that can be distinguished into stalk and tip (leading)...

Co-Orientation: Quantifying Simultaneous Co-Localization and Orientational Alignment of Filaments in Light Microscopy

Co-localization analysis is a widely used tool to seek evidence for functional interactions between molecules in different color channels in microscopic images. Here we extend the basic co-localization analysis by including the orientations of the structures on which the molecules reside. We refer to the combination of co-localization of...