Figure 4.

Confocal microscopy depth imaging of skeletal stem cells (SSCs) seeded on ethylene oxide sterilization (EOS) titanium templates at day 14. (A) Depth imaging revealed the presence of different cell layers covering the template surface. The presence of blue-labeled cells in areas of higher cell density and green-labeled cells in areas of lower cell density indicates cell layer thickness varied by 35 µm on the template surface, depending on cell density (scale bar represents 100 µm). (B) Virtual cross-sectional view of the 90-µm pore surface of the template as cultured: SSCs can be seen growing within the pores up to a depth of 25 µm (scale bar represents 20 µm). (C) Virtual cross-sectional view of the titanium template demonstrating the thickness of the cell layer on the template surface, in addition to the uniformity of SSC growth within the 90-µm pores. Note that SSCs growing within the pores fail to completely fill the pore space (scale bar represents 50 µm).