Extracellular matrix (ECM) materials are currently utilized for soft tissue repair applications such as vascular grafts, tendon reconstruction, and hernia repair. These materials are derived from tissues such as human dermis and porcine small intestine submucosa, which must be rendered acellular to prevent disease transmission and decrease the risk of an immune response. The ideal decellularization technique removes cells and cellular remnants, but leaves the original collagen architecture intact. The tissue utilized in this study was the central tendon of the porcine diaphragm, which had not been previously investigated for soft tissue repair. Several treatments were investigated during this study including peracetic acid, TritonX-100, sodium dodecyl sulfate, and tri(n-butyl) phosphate (TnBP). Of the decellularization treatments investigated, only 1% TnBP was effective in removing cell nuclei while leaving the structure and composition of the tissue intact. Overall, the resulting acellular tissue scaffold retained the ECM composition, strength, resistance to enzymatic degradation, and biocompatibility of the original tissue, making 1% TnBP an acceptable decellularization treatment for porcine diaphragm tendon.

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jane says is an exhibition of works by Ann Shelton, that opened at the Denny Dimin Gallery in New York City, in Spring 2019. Ann’s sumptuous photographic portraits of botanic arrangements – arranged by the artist with an ikebana-like approach – present these contrivances in larger-than-life detail. Divorced from the domestic interior and titled both for the medicinal plants they feature and female archetypes, each botanic composition reveals an unexpected history of women’s plant knowledge and its suppression. An accompanying performance – assembled and choreographed by the artist – is constructed from a tapestry of quotes, and stories about the properties of plants, their historic use as contraceptives, for fertility and abortion. These arrangements show the plants contorted into obedience, just as colonization sought to control and claim our natural world and fellow species, and suppress indigenous and women’s botanic expertise. Now, we find ourselves at the brink of irreversible biodiversity loss and climate change, living in the era of the Anthropocene. Shelton’s work provokes us to consider not only humanity’s relentless depletion of the natural world, but the role women will play in a regenerative future.