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

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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.