Role of Distortion Energy in Fibroblast-Mediated Remodeling of Collagen Matrices

项目总结 致密的结缔组织由丰富的胶原蛋白网络组成，由 成纤维细胞。母公司R15的提案正在研究成纤维细胞介导的胶原重塑是否 在组织尺度上由变形应变能控制。目标失真能量大小的影响 将通过量化成分、组织和组织的变化来测量胶原重塑 脚手架的力学行为。为了量化来自共聚焦的纤维组织的变化 显微镜图像，一个名为FiberFit的软件应用程序被用来自动进行客观测量 描述材料各向异性的两个结构属性：纤维取向和纤维分散。这个 2016年，西北组织力学实验室开发了独立的软件应用程序FiberFit 并免费提供给Windows和Mac系统的科学界。FiberFit现在已被使用 在开发实验室之外的许多研究项目中，包括对肿瘤、肝脏、肌肉和 工程复合材料。该项目将重新设计FiberFit并将其部署为基于云的 申请。重点将放在创建强大、直观和可持续的软件应用程序上 实施软件工程和设计方面的最佳实践，以促进科学领域的广泛采用 社区。

PROJECT SUMMARY Dense connective tissue is composed of an abundant collagen network that is maintained and repaired by fibroblasts. The parent R15 proposal is investigating whether fibroblast-mediated collagen remodeling is governed at the tissue-scale by distortion strain energy. The effect of targeted magnitudes of distortion energy on collagen remodeling will be measured by quantifying alterations in the composition, organization, and mechanical behavior of the scaffolds. In order to quantify changes in fiber organization from confocal microscopy images, a software application called FiberFit is being used to automate the objective measurement of two structural properties that describe material anisotropy: fiber orientation and fiber dispersion. The standalone software application, FiberFit, was developed in the Northwest Tissue Mechanics laboratory in 2016 and is freely available to the scientific community for Windows and Mac systems. FiberFit has now been used in many research projects outside the developing laboratory, including research on tumors, liver, muscle, and engineered composite materials. This project will re-engineer FiberFit and deploy it as a cloud-based application. Emphasis will be placed on creating a robust, intuitive, and sustainable software application that implements best practices in software engineering and design to facilitate broad adoption across the scientific community.