Micro-CT as a tool for nanoporosity investigation of bone engineered scaffolds

Aims Nowadays medicine needs material to heal, unite and complete defects of the affected tissue. It often involves with creating three dimensional constructs. Biodegradable materials, which are currently available for bone tissue regeneration, still have limitations regarding their degradation rate. In this case there is a growing need for novel quantitative techniques for the characterization of nanoporoisty, which can appear after degradation process. One of this method is microcomputed tomography (micro-CT). It has a wide variety of applications in bioengineering varying from imaging, through 2D and 3D quantitative analysis to in situ tests. In comparison to conventional methods used for evaluation of degradation of tissue engineering products which are based on 2D visualization, the micro-CT not only allows the observation in all of orientations in non-destructive way, but also give an access to nanoporosity. The aim of this study was to show an application of micro-CT in quantitative analysis of nanoporosity in scaffolds during degradation process in vitro.