The dorsal skinfold chamber: window into the dynamic interaction of biomaterials with their surrounding host tissue

Abstract

The implantation of biomaterials into the human body has become an indispensable part of almost all fi elds of modern medicine. Accordingly, there is an increasing need for appropriate approaches, which can be used to evaluate the suitability of different biomaterials for distinct clinical indications. The dorsal skinfold chamber is a sophisticated experimental model, which has been proven to be extremely valuable for the systematic in vivo analysis of the dynamic interaction of small biomaterial implants with the surrounding host tissue in rats, hamsters and mice. By means of intravital fl uorescence microscopy, this chronic model allows for repeated analyses of various cellular, molecular and microvascular mechanisms, which are involved in the early infl ammatory and angiogenic host tissue response to biomaterials during the initial 2-3 weeks after implantation. Therefore, the dorsal skinfold chamber has been broadly used during the last two decades to assess the in vivo performance of prosthetic vascular grafts, metallic implants, surgical meshes, bone substitutes, scaffolds for tissue engineering, as well as for locally or systemically applied drug delivery systems. These studies have contributed to identify basic material properties determining the biocompatibility of the implants and vascular ingrowth into their surface or internal structures. Thus, the dorsal skinfold chamber model does not only provide deep insights into the complex interactions of biomaterials with the surrounding soft tissues of the host but also represents an important tool for the future development of novel biomaterials aiming at an optimisation of their biofunctionality in clinical practice.

Inhibition of protein kinase CK2 suppresses tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced leukocyte–endothelial cell interaction

“…The chamber was prepared as described previously in detail [26]. Briefly, mice were anesthetized by an intraperitoneal (i.p.)…”

Protein kinase CK2 is a regulator of angiogenesis in endometriotic lesions

“…1a). The implantation procedure of the chamber has been described previously in detail [26,27]. After implantation, the animals were allowed to recover from anesthesia and surgical trauma for 48 h. Subsequently, the uterine horns of 6 donor animals were isolated and placed in a 30 mm-diameter plastic Petri dish, containing 37°C warm DMEM (10% FCS, 100 U/mL penicillin, 0.1 mg/mL streptomycin; PAA) and the fluorescent dye bisbenzimide H33342 (200 lg/mL; SigmaAldrich), which allows for an easy differentiation of the stained endometrium from the non-stained surrounding host tissue after transplantation into the dorsal skinfold chamber (Fig.…”

Accessing to arteriovenous blood flow dynamics response using combined laser speckle contrast imaging and skin optical clearing

“…Furthermore, some other highresolution optical imaging modalities, such as intravital microscopy (IVM) [7,8], optical coherence tomography (OCT) [9] and photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) [10], have also been applied to image the cutaneous microcirculation. Unfortunately, IVM usually depends on the dorsal skinfold chamber, which may accompany with bleeding and changes in the physiological environment [11,12]; Due to lack of sufficient temporal resolution, it is difficult for OCT and PAM to monitor a large field of view of the cutaneous blood flow dynamical response [13][14][15].…”