Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Assessment of Vascularity in a Regenerative Tissue Matrix

Patrick Antkowiak¹, Anthony Bruce¹, Nicholas Palacio¹, Heather Ansorge², Aaron Barere², Shayn Peirce-Cottler³, Frederick H. Epstein³

Regenerative tissue matrix is widely used to enhance tissue repair. Vascularization is a critical element of enhancing tissue repair with tissue matrix because a blood supply is needed to support tissue regeneration. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is widely used to quantify changes in vascularity in various disease settings. We tested the hypothesis that DCE-MRI could noninvasively quantify serial changes in vascularity over time after implantation of a regenerative tissue matrix in mice. We measured stepwise increases of vascularity in the tissue matrix, while vascularity within skeletal muscle remained unchanged. Histology corroborated the increase in vasculature in the matrix through time.