Introducing a diagnostic modality into biomaterials serving medical applications

Please join us for the Virtual Pub on Friday, May 16th at 13:00 CEST. We welcome Kristyna Kolouchova, University of Ghent, for a talk entitled, "Introducing a diagnostic modality into biomaterials serving medical applications". Find the abstract of Kristyna's talk below

All are welcome to join!

Introducing a diagnostic modality into biomaterials serving medical applications

Kristyna Kolouchova,¹ Ondrej Groborz,² Vit Herynek,³ Jana Humajova, ³ Petr Matous, ³ Lana Van Damme,¹ Jan Kucka,⁴ Martin Hruby,⁴ Ludek Sefc,³ Laurence Parmentier,¹ Nicole Ritter,¹ Lana Van Damme,¹ Sandra Van Vlierberghe¹

¹Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281-S4, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

²Institute of Biophysics and Informatics, Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine, Salmovská 1, 12000 Prague 2, Czech Republic

³Center for Advanced Preclinical Imaging, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Salmovská 3, 120 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic

⁴Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Heyrovského sq. 2, Prague 6, 162 06, Czech Republic

To ensure the best possible clinical outcome, the determination of the biodegradation/dissolution rates and the fate of administered synthetic systems or biomaterials is essential. However, monitoring the biodegradation of biomaterials in vivo using imaging techniques is challenging, and yet to be explored for the majority of existing systems, which hampers their further entry into the clinic. As an example, the available data regarding the biodegradation of hydrogel-based implants applicable in regenerative medicine is limited and is solely based on ex vivo examinations following in vivo animal testing. In the current research, we focus on introducing a diagnostic modality for two types of diagnostic techniques. A first method encompasses fluorine magnetic resonance imaging (¹⁹F MRI), representing an attractive, non-invasive technique which can be used as an addition to commonly exploited ¹H MRI. This method enables to obtain high contrast images due to the negligible fluorine background in living tissues, and gained increasing attention in recent decades. As a second strategy, we have introduced a diagnostic modality to be observed in commonly used µCT. Although µCT has its limitations, such as its invasive character (X-ray irradiation of the patient), it is currently one of the most frequently used techniques in the clinic. The diagnostic modalities have been implemented into a wide range of smart polymeric systems as well as into crosslinked biomaterials while their fate has been subjected to in vivo evaluation.

K.K. gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen, project no. 1229422N). KK acknowledge Euro-BioImaging (www.eurobioimaging.eu) for providing access to imaging technologies and services via The Center for Advanced Preclinical Imaging (CAPI) (Prague, Czechia) and funding via the COMULISglobe project, supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.