Serpe Mary, Lee Caleb, Povinelli Reid, Thyden Richard, Perreault Luke, He Keshi, Gaudette Glenn R, Dos Santos Antonio C F, Ranger Bryan J
Department of Engineering, Boston College, 245 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02446, United States.
ACS Omega. 2025 Aug 20;10(34):39203-39211. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.5c06107. eCollection 2025 Sep 2.
The advancement of cell therapy and cellular agriculture underscores the need for noninvasive, cost-effective methods for continuous monitoring of large-scale cell production. Bioreactors, designed to mimic physiological conditions to facilitate cell growth, require reliable quality control measures. This study investigates the potential of ultrasound technology to characterize cellular growth and decellularization in spinach scaffolds. Ultrasound images were acquired of fresh spinach leaves, decellularized leaves, and leaves with cells seeded in defined cloning well regions on decellularized leaves. Machine learning tools were employed to assist in the identification and segmentation of images as part of ultrasound data analysis. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in mean pixel intensity values between fresh and decellularized leaves ( < 0.001) as well as between regions with and without cells seeded on decellularized leaves ( = 0.001). These findings were confirmed by histological analysis. The results indicate that ultrasound imaging could serve as a viable, nondestructive tool for quality assessment of plant scaffolds in cellular agriculture applications.
细胞疗法和细胞农业的发展凸显了对用于大规模细胞生产连续监测的非侵入性、经济高效方法的需求。旨在模拟生理条件以促进细胞生长的生物反应器需要可靠的质量控制措施。本研究调查了超声技术表征菠菜支架中细胞生长和去细胞化的潜力。采集了新鲜菠菜叶、去细胞化叶以及在去细胞化叶上特定克隆孔区域接种细胞的叶的超声图像。作为超声数据分析的一部分，采用机器学习工具协助图像的识别和分割。统计分析显示，新鲜叶和去细胞化叶之间的平均像素强度值存在显著差异（<0.001），在去细胞化叶上接种细胞和未接种细胞的区域之间也存在显著差异（=0.001）。组织学分析证实了这些发现。结果表明，超声成像可作为细胞农业应用中植物支架质量评估的一种可行的非破坏性工具。
