DelNero_wk6

We enjoyed another exhilarating week with the plastics team and the LBMS group. We observed several tumor resections with difficult closures on the face, a laternal canthoplasty to reconstruct a patient's eyelid, and a flap operation for a diabetic foot ulcer. This latter surgery was the most interesting, as Dr. Spector removed the bone from the big toe and folded the remaining tissue over the wound. This patient had previously been treated with Integra, but unfortunately the graft did not take and more extensive intervention was required. This operation was a clear example of the potential benefit of microstructured acellular dermal grafts, which may accelerate closure and preclude more aggressive surgery.

The week in the lab was less successful than previous weeks. I had cultured HFF1 fibroblasts on the collagen scaffolds in order to establish viability and determine the best method for imaging, either histology or immunofluorescent confocal microscopy. However, when it was time to fix the cells, I failed to establish the fibroblast antibody stain and the scope did not have a 405nm laser for DAPI nuclear stain. I was especially disappointed because these were the only cells and antibodies that were available for the in vitro culture. Similarly, I will not be able to image explanted discs with confocal microscopy here at WCMC, and anticipate spending many long nights in the imaging core back in Ithaca unless histology works better than expected. On the other project, I tried to flow fluorescent microbeads through my bioreactor gels, but the beads were too small (2um) to see with brightfield, and the collagen hydrogel was too opaque to visualize the fluorescence. All I could determine was that beads were present at the inlet and outlet, but I could not confirm that the entire vascular network was perfused.

 On a brighter note, our scaffold explantation went extremely well, and we have 23 of the 7d discs ready to go! We were also very successful with the pull-through suture technique using nylon instead of silk or polypropylene, which left debris or damaged the collagen, respectively. Finally, we made very nice fibers and vascular network patterns with the caramel sacrificial method, but the fibers still dissolve to quickly to mold the gels- we probably need to coat the material with something before casting the collagen. It's hard to believe there is only one week left, with so many projects to work on!

I finally realized I could post images on the blog. This is what I've been doing in lab this week: