Micro-structural characterization of tissue engineering scaffolds [1] is of importance since the micro-structural features of scaffolds affect a wide range of cell behaviors. Micro-computed tomography (µ-CT) is a powerful system to characterize scaffolds in a non-destructive way. In this study, a systematic search was performed on electronic databases using the terms “micro-CT” and “scaffold” to identify papers published in 2016. The results showed that the methods parts of the majority of the papers are in need of improvement, such as that around 71% of the identified papers did not report the number of replicates. µ-CT was used only qualitatively or quantitatively in 15% and 9.5% of the papers, respectively. This study suggests the amount of quantitative and qualitative information that can be derived from micro-CT can be maximized, and methods parts of the papers need to be improved by providing the critical parameters used in the characterization to maintain the reproducibility of the studies.

Acknowledgments: This study is a result of the project FROnTHERA (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). IFC thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the Ph.D. scholarship (SFRH/BD/99555/2014). JMO also thanks the FCT for the funds provided under the program Investigador FCT 2012 and 2015 (IF/00423/2012 and IF/01285/2015).

References:

[1] Cengiz IF, Oliveira JM, Reis RL. Micro-computed tomography characterization of tissue engineering scaffolds: effects of pixel size and rotation step. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine. 2017 Aug 1;28(8):129.