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Polykandriotis et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2018;5:37 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2018.52 Page 5 of 10

Figure 5. Example of corrosion cast showing enhanced neovascularization with vessel sprouting and formation of capillary bed rom an
experiment with a duration of 6 weeks: vasculogenesis is more pronounced from the venous side than from the arterial side

Figure 6. Micro-computed tomography of AV-loop in chamber with visibly enhanced neovascularization including vessel sprouting and
formation of a capillary bed from the venous side rather than from the arterial side from an experiment with a duration of 2 weeks

Micro computed tomography (CT) was performed with a FORBILD High Resolution Micro-CT (Erlangen,
[13]
Germany) [Figure 6]. We have previously shown another possibility to visualize the vessels fully in 3D by
[13]
calculating an isosurface for all voxels above a given threshold .

THE ANGIOGENIC CASCADE IN THE AV LOOP MODEL
In a first line of experiments we verified that vascularization of a confined porous matrix was feasible. For
this purpose we combined the AV-loop model, with a porous bone matrix and encased the system in an
[29]
isolation chamber. Explantation times were set to 2, 4 and 8 weeks .
Within 8 weeks post implantation, the entire matrix was usually infiltrated with a fibrovascular tissue.
Essentially, the matrix was vascularized. We evaluated the results by means of histomorphometry,
immunohistochemistry, corrosion casting, micro-magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) as well as micro-