A hydrogel-based phantom of the brain tissue aimed at modelling complex metabolic transport processes

Computed Tomography-Assisted Study of the Liquid Contrast Agent’s Spread in a Hydrogel Phantom of the Brain Tissue

“…Here, we considered a hydrogel with a matrix formed from collagen extracted from the skin of North African sharp-toothed catfish Clarias gariepinus. The detailed procedure of its preparation was reported earlier [28]. However, the previous study investigated either pure collagen hydrogel or its version with macroscopic lipid inclusion.…”

“…To study fluid transport properties in a medium resembling the brain's parenchyma, we recently proposed using a collagen-based hydrogel phantom [27,28], which reasonably closely mimics structural, mechanical and solute transport properties of brain tissue. However, the experiments, which studied fluorescent markers in the phantom, were carried out using sequences of two-dimensional photos depicting the spread of fluorescent markers in either a pure hydrogel or in a hydrogel with non-homogenized localized inclusion of lipids.…”

“…Simultaneously, lipids are valuable constituents of the brain's tissue [36], and their introduction made the phantom more realistic from a biological point of view. In contrast to the previous work [28], where lipid inclusions were highly inhomogeneous, herein we used a uniform distribution, intending this "phantom tissue" to be a reproduction as a whole.…”

Editorial on the special issue on brain physiology meets complex systems

“…This situation induces a need for developing a physical phantom model with a structure resembling the brain's parenchyma tissue, but having controlled properties. Vanina et al [5] reports the synthesis and study of properties of a novel phantom medium, based on collagen hydrogel with additions aimed at coordinating the phantom's composition and structure with that of the brain, as demonstrated by chemical analysis, electron microscopy, and computed tomography in the regime of clinical brain scanning. In addition, the quantification of the fluorescent marker spread was carried out.…”

Poro-viscoelastic material parameter identification of brain tissue-mimicking hydrogels

“…For this reason, synthetic surrogates and mimicking materials are increasingly being used. Among a variety of solutions that have been studied and developed, hydrogels appear to be the ideal candidate to mimic the mechanical behavior of soft hydrated tissues, including but not limited to brain tissue ( Forte et al, 2016 ; Navarro-Lozoya et al, 2019 ; Axpe et al, 2020 ; Distler et al, 2020 ; Vanina et al, 2022 ). Used as phantoms, they provide the opportunity to mimic the mechanical behavior of native biological tissues for a variety of applications such as the development of real-scale training models for surgeons, testing of robotic surgical tools, as well as design of prostheses and personal protective gear ( Fan and Gong, 2020 ).…”