FIG. 6.

(A) Gross morphology of explanted scaffolds at each time point. Scale bars are 1 cm. There were no observable differences in size or surface area. Arrows denote omental tissue that is attached to the surface of the scaffold. (B) SEM of scaffolds explanted from each group at each time point (scale bars = 250 μm). There appears to be more tissue attached to the villi at later time points and more broken villi at later time points, but otherwise the microarchitecture appeared preserved. (C) Surface area measurements of the scaffolds confirmed that there were no changes in surface area over time, regardless of whether seeded or not. (D) Thickness measurements did not demonstrate any change over time. (E) Villus height did have a statistically significant difference in variation by one-way analysis of variance in the time variable (p = 0.0027), but on post-hoc multiple comparisons of each time point to baseline within groups, there were no statistically significant differences. Thus, after 12 weeks of omental implantation, there was little evidence of significant degradation by surface area changes or microstructure. Color images are available online.