Fluorescence imaging of cell-biomaterial interactions

Biomaterials are widely used as cell-interactive substrates in both diagnostic and therapeutic areas of regenerative medicine. Advances in cell biology, materials science, microscopy, and biomedical modeling have converged to spawn new methods for characterizing cell-biomaterial interactions. This chapter focuses on the biorelevant characterization of cell-biomaterial behaviors using fluorescent imaging-based approaches. Traditional and modern fluorescent imaging methods used to characterize cell-biomaterial interactions are introduced in the first part of the chapter. In the second part, case studies demonstrate how distinct aspects of cellular responses to biomaterials can be discerned at various temporal and spatial scales via fluorescent imaging approaches. Of particular interest are cell imaging modalities that extract or predict functional information from cells or organisms, which cannot be readily obtained in real time using traditional biochemical, molecular, or genetic methodologies.