Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Combination Of Statistical Shape Modeling And Statistical Parametric Mapping To Quantify Cartilage Contact Mechanics In Hip Dysplasia, Penny R. Atkins Phd, Shireen Y. Elhabian Phd, Jeffrey A. Weiss Phd, Ross T. Whitaker Phd, Christopher L. Peters Md, Andrew E. Anderson Phd

PanaSoMM

Finite element models can predict subject-specific chondrolabral stresses and help to elucidate the effect of under-coverage and incongruency of the hip joint in patients with dysplasia. However, complex stress patterns are difficult to generalize and evaluate statistically. With an established correspondence across shapes from statistical shape modeling (SSM), statistical parametric mapping (SPM) allows for evaluation of local variability while preserving model subject-specificity. Herein, we evaluated the combined application of SSM and SPM to compare cartilage contact stress between control subjects and patients with dysplasia.

Previously published hip joint contact stresses were mapped onto chondrolabral surface meshes and incorporated into an …

Application Of Statistical Shape Modeling To Predict Clinical Metric Of Femoral Head Coverage In Patients With Developmental Dysplasia, Penny R. Atkins Phd, Praful Agrawal Phd, Joseph D. Mozingo Phd, Keisuke Uemura Md, Phd, Kunihiko Tokunaga Md, Christopher L. Peters Md, Shireen Y. Elhabian Phd, Ross T. Whitaker Phd, Andrew E. Anderson Phd

PanaSoMM

Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is described as under-coverage of the femoral head by the acetabulum, resulting in mechanical instability. Though DDH is often diagnosed using plain film radiographs, these images cannot adequately capture 3D joint coverage. Herein, we applied a 3D statistical shape model (SSM) to the femur and hemi-pelvis of patients with DDH to objectively measure shape variation and evaluated whether SSM outputs could predict measurements of joint coverage.

The femur and hemi-pelvis were semi-automatically segmented from CT images (83 hips from 47 females with DDH). Surfaces of each hip were reconstructed from segmentations, aligned, and input …

Pulsatility Is A Predictive Marker Of Improved Cardiac Function In Patients With Liquid Matrix-Treated Left Ventricular Assist Devices, Philemon Mikail, Rinku Skaria, Marvin Slepian, Janny Garcia, Richard Smith, Zain Khalpey

The VAD Journal

Objective: Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are utilized as a bridge to transplant or as destination therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure. Although cardiac offloading from these devices rarely leads to complete remodeling and functional recovery, the use of mesenchymal cells to modulate heart failure has been explored in recent years due to its intrinsic regenerative properties. Current methods of evaluating cardiac function have too much variability, difficulty of access, or require too frequent follow up to create universal weaning protocols. We hypothesized that the administration of amniotic allograft liquid matrix (LM) containing amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells (aMSCs) in …

Alternative Fixation Of Venous Valves For Bioprosthetic Applications, Makenzie Kapales

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Venous valve failure allows for the retrograde, or backward, flow of blood into the lower extremities, which leads to Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI). CVI infringes upon quality of life through ulceration and can result in death due to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), or blood clots, causing pulmonary embolism. A successful treatment of CVI restores valve function and prevents retrograde blood flow; however, current bioprosthetic venous valves exhibit low patency and high calcification. To improve upon bioprosthetic venous valves and CVI treatment, the University of Arkansas’s Cardiovascular Biomechanics Lab conducts studies with the purpose of comparing the properties and performance of …

The Tin Man Needs A Heart: A Proposed Framework For The Regulation Of Bioprinted Organs, Linda Foit

Fordham Law Review

Each day, seventeen people die in the United States while waiting for an organ transplant. At least part of this need could be met by bioprinting, a technology that allows the on-demand production of custom-sized organs from a patient’s own cells. The field of bioprinting is progressing rapidly: the first bioprinted organs have already entered the clinic. Yet, developers of bioprinted organs face significant uncertainty as to how their potentially lifesaving products will be regulated—and by which government agency. Such regulatory uncertainty has the potential to decrease investment and stifle innovation in this promising technological field. This Note examines how …

Design And Development Of Software With A Graphical User Interface To Display And Convert Multiple Microscopic Histology Images, Sayed Ahmadreza Razian, Majid Jadidi, Alexey Kamenskiy

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Histological images are widely used to assess the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Recent advancements in image analysis allow the identification of structural features on histological sections that can help advance medical device development, brain and cancer research, drug discovery, vascular mechanobiology, and many other fields. Histological slide scanners create images in SVS and TIFF formats that were designed to archive image blocks and high-resolution textual information. Because these formats were primarily intended for storage, they are often not compatible with conventional image analysis software and require conversion before they can be used in research. We have developed a user-friendly …

Electroporation And Cell Killing By Milli- To Nanosecond Pulses And Avoiding Neuromuscular Stimulation In Cancer Ablation, Emily Gudvangen, Vitalii Kim, Vitalij Novickij, Federico Battista, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

Ablation therapies aim at eradication of tumors with minimal impact on surrounding healthy tissues. Conventional pulsed electric field (PEF) treatments cause pain and muscle contractions far beyond the ablation area. The ongoing quest is to identify PEF parameters efficient at ablation but not at stimulation. We measured electroporation and cell killing thresholds for 150 ns–1 ms PEF, uni- and bipolar, delivered in 10- to 300-pulse trains at up to 1 MHz rates. Monolayers of murine colon carcinoma cells exposed to PEF were stained with YO-PRO-1 dye to detect electroporation. In 2–4 h, dead cells were labeled with propidium. Electroporation and …

In Vitro And In Vivo Correlation Of Skin And Cellular Responses To Nucleic Acid Delivery, M. Bosnjak, K. Znidar, A. Sales Conniff, T. Jesenko, B. Markelc, Nina Semenova, J. Tur, K. Kohena, S. Kranjc Brezar, L. Heller, M. Cemazar

Bioelectrics Publications

Skin, the largest organ in the body, provides a passive physical barrier against infection and contains elements of the innate and adaptive immune systems. Skin consists of various cells, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells and immune cells. This diversity of cell types could be important to gene therapies because DNA transfection could elicit different responses in different cell types. Previously, we observed the upregulation and activation of cytosolic DNA sensing pathways in several non-tumor and tumor cell types as well in tumors after the electroporation (electrotransfer) of plasmid DNA (pDNA). Based on this research and the innate immunogenicity of …

The Paradox Of Pulmonary Vascular Resistance: Restoration Of Pulmonary Capillary Recruitment As A Sine Qua Non For True Therapeutic Success In Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, David Langleben, Stylianos E. Orfanos, Benjamin D. Fox, Nathan Messas, Michele Giovinazzo, John D. Catravas

Bioelectrics Publications

Exercise-induced increases in pulmonary blood flow normally increase pulmonary arterial pressure only minimally, largely due to a reserve of pulmonary capillaries that are available for recruitment to carry the flow. In pulmonary arterial hypertension, due to precapillary arteriolar obstruction, such recruitment is greatly reduced. In exercising pulmonary arterial hypertension patients, pulmonary arterial pressure remains high and may even increase further. Current pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies, acting principally as vasodilators, decrease calculated pulmonary vascular resistance by increasing pulmonary blood flow but have a minimal effect in lowering pulmonary arterial pressure and do not restore significant capillary recruitment. Novel pulmonary arterial hypertension …

Eye Movement And Pupil Measures: A Review, Bhanuka Mahanama, Yasith Jayawardana, Sundararaman Rengarajan, Gavindya Jayawardena, Leanne Chukoskie, Joseph Snider, Sampath Jayarathna

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Our subjective visual experiences involve complex interaction between our eyes, our brain, and the surrounding world. It gives us the sense of sight, color, stereopsis, distance, pattern recognition, motor coordination, and more. The increasing ubiquity of gaze-aware technology brings with it the ability to track gaze and pupil measures with varying degrees of fidelity. With this in mind, a review that considers the various gaze measures becomes increasingly relevant, especially considering our ability to make sense of these signals given different spatio-temporal sampling capacities. In this paper, we selectively review prior work on eye movements and pupil measures. We first …

The Heat Shock Protein 90 Inhibitor, At13387, Protects The Alveolo-Capillary Barrier And Prevents Hci-Induced Chronic Lung Injury And Pulmonary Fibrosis, Ruben M.L. Colunga Biancatelli, Pavel Solopov, Christiana Dimitropoulou, Betsy Gregory, Tierney Day, John D. Catravas

Bioelectrics Publications

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) exposure causes asthma-like conditions, reactive airways dysfunction syndrome, and pulmonary fibrosis. Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) is a molecular chaperone that regulates multiple cellular processes. HSP90 inhibitors are undergoing clinical trials for cancer and are also being studied in various pre-clinical settings for their anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects. Here we investigated the ability of the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor AT13387 to prevent chronic lung injury induced by exposure to HCl in vivo and its protective role in the endothelial barrier in vitro. We instilled C57Bl/6J mice with 0.1N HCl (2 µL/g body weight, intratracheally) and …

Alkaline Plasma-Activated Water (Paw) As An Innovative Therapeutic Avenue For Cancer Treatment, Bolun Pang, Zhijie Liu, Sitao Wang, Yuting Gao, Miao Qi, Dehui Xu, Renwu Zhou, Dingxin Liu, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

Plasma-activated water (PAW) is considered to be an effective anticancer agent due to the diverse aqueous reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS: ROS and RNS), but the drawback of low dose and short duration of RONS in acidified PAW limits their clinical application. Herein, this Letter presents an innovative therapeutic avenue for cancer treatment with highly-effective alkaline PAW prepared by air surface plasma. This anticancer alkaline formulation is comprised of a rich mixture of highly chemical RONS and exhibited a prolonged half-life compared to acidified PAW. The H₂O₂, NO₂-, and ONOO^-/O_{2 …}

Atmospheric Air Plasma Streamers Deliver Nanosecond Pulses For Focused Electroporation, Shu Xiao, Carol Zhou, Eric Appia, Shirshak Dhali

Bioelectrics Publications

Background: For electrotherapies that involve electrodes and high-intensity electric fields, such as in tissue ablation, we report a method of pulse delivery that can focus the electric field away from the electrodes, as demonstrated in vitro.

Materials and Methods: To electroporate cells in a monolayer seeded in a 35 mm culture dish, two atmospheric-pressure plasma channels generated by two thin, copper foil electrodes above the surface of the solution provided the current and established the electric field.

Results: Depending on the pulse duration, the plasma channels were observed as corona (100 ns), streamer (300 ns), and mixture of streamer …

Exploring Cell Differentiation Vs. Localization In Engineered Ligament-To-Bone Entheses, Saagar N. Sheth, Michael E. Brown, Jennifer L. Puetzer

Undergraduate Research Posters

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) connects to bone via structurally complex insertions known as entheses that translate load from elastic ligament and stiff bone via gradients in organization, composition, and cell phenotype [1]. These gradients are not recreated in graft repair or engineered replacements, yielding limited repair options and high failure rates [2]. Previously, we developed a culture system that uses a tensile-compressive interface to guide ligament fibroblasts to develop early postnatal-like entheses by 6 weeks [3]; however, cells used were isolated from the entirety of the neonatal bovine ACL from bone to bone and likely contained multiple cell phenotypes …