Comparison of composite polysaccharide-based materials for tissue engineering by means of texture analysis

.Scaffold materials play a significant role in tissue regeneration, therefore it is crucial to investigate their mor- phological characteristics and properties. Recently a particular interest has been raised for materials based on two oppositely charged polysaccharides: alginate and chitosan. In the present paper the morphological characteristics of a pure alginate gel and a binary (gel) mixture composed of alginate and chitosan are evaluated and compared in order to quantify the differ- ences between the two structures. A set of textural descriptors based on histogram analysis as well as on fractal dimension is extracted from Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images in order to describe the differences that the images visually present

Texture analysis of TEM micrographs of alginate gels for cell microencapsulation

In this work, the morphological characteristics of a calcium alginate gel and a binary (gel) mixture composed of (calcium) alginate and lactose-modified chitosan (chitlac) are evaluated and compared to quantify the differences between the two three-dimensional (3D) structures. A set of textural descriptors based on histogram analysis as well as on gray level co-occurrence matrix and on fractal dimension is extracted from transmission electron microscopy micrographs to describe the morphological differences that the images present. The obtained results reveal significant quantitative morphological differences between the calcium alginate gel and the binary gel mixture that were already inferred from rheological experiments, so as to provide a structural basis for developing new encapsulation systems based on such mixed polymer gels. Microsc. Res. Tech. 74:58-66, 2011. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc