Influence of pressure on mandibular angiosomes: What implications for decellularization?

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Anatomy
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Bone vascularization is poorly understood, hindering reconstructive surgery and bone graft viability.
• Current anatomical methods struggle to map complex, pressure-dependent blood flow in bone.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel method for analyzing pressure-dependent vascular territories in the human mandible.
• To optimize decellularization by perfusion protocols for bone allografts.

Main Methods:

• Integrated pressure-controlled perfusion with 3D imaging (contrast-enhanced cone beam computed tomography) on human cadaveric mandibles.
• Utilized a custom segmentation pipeline to create pressure maps of mandibular vascular distribution.
• Systematically increased perfusion pressure to observe territory expansion and resistance patterns.

Main Results:

• Identified a low-pressure anastomosis between maxillary, facial, and mental arteries, indicating shared intraosseous territories.
• Observed a radial perfusion pattern from the inferior alveolar artery with increasing resistance towards cortical bone.
• Determined perfusion saturation around 100-125 hPa, aligning with physiological pressures, and noted higher thresholds for cortical bone.

Conclusions:

• Pressure-driven perfusion analysis offers critical insights into bone vascularization dynamics.
• Optimizing pressure parameters can enhance decellularization efficiency for bone allografts, improving integration and viability.
• Findings challenge static angiosoma models, emphasizing the need for pressure-controlled anatomical studies in bone vascularization research.