Our paper on electrospun scaffolds for ovarian follicles infiltration, published in PLOS ONE.
Our paper entitled “Novel approach for the assessment of ovarian follicles infiltration in polymeric electrospun patterned scaffolds” has been accepted as contribution for the Special Collection “Open Biomaterials Research” in PLOS ONE, co-edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The paper is another important outcome of the collaboration between our Institute, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Head: Prof. Matthias W. Beckmann) and the Department of Radiology, Preclinical Imaging Platform Erlangen (led by Prof. Tobias Bäuerle) at Erlangen University Hospital. The paper deals with an innovative approach to investigate ovarian follicles infiltration inside the scaffolds by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In general, the application of tissue engineering for the regeneration of reproductive organs and tissues raised the interest of the scientific community in the last years. Moreover, the application of MRI for tissue engineering purpose is a quite novel field and it is becoming an interesting topic recently. IMAGE. Confocal microscopy images of the follicles inside the scaffolds (a,c) PCL and (b,d) PCL/gelatin. Green points correspond to living cells, blue fibers represent the electrospun mesh and, within the follicle, the presence of single cells. Snapshots of 3D View are reported in (c,d). Scale bar 50μm. (Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0) in PLOS ONE). [1] Raffel N, et al. (2019) Novel approach for the assessment of ovarian follicles infiltration in polymeric electrospun patterned scaffolds. PLoS ONE 14(4): e0215985.