Osteogenesis capability and degradation property evaluation of injectable biomaterials: comparison of computed tomography and ultrasound

Injectable biomaterials, which can be physically inserted into a target site without the use of surgery, have received increasing attention in tissue engineering during the last decade. There is also a growing need for quantitative evaluation of the injectable biomaterial directly and noninvasively. The objectives of this study are to originate a quantitative noninvasive technique for evaluation of in situ forming bone biomaterials and to validate the feasibility of diagnostic ultrasound images analysis technique. The potential of ultrasound for quantitative evaluation of tissue development was compared with computed tomography (CT) in vivo. A strong correlation was witnessed between ultrasound gray-scale values (GV) and volumetric mean of CT value (HUm) (r = 0.95). Meanwhile, the volume of the material area could be estimated by ultrasound maximum cross-section pixel, which demonstrates a certain consistency with CT mask volume in 3D reconstruction images (r = 0.87). In conclusion, ultrasound imaging, which is corresponding with the traditional CT, can be used to evaluate osteogenesis capability and degradation property of injectable biomaterials. It may be a noninvasive, nonradioactive, and effective aid to monitor ossification and reconstruction of biomaterials at the implant region for bone defect repair.