Sponges occur ubiquitously in the marine realm and in some deep-sea areas they dominate the benthic communities forming complex biogenic habitats – sponge grounds, aggregations, gardens and reefs. However, deep-sea sponges and sponge-grounds are still poorly investigated with regards to biotechnological potential in support of a Blue growth strategy. Under the scope of this study, five dominant North Atlantic deep-sea sponges, were characterized to elucidate promising applications in human health, namely for bone tissue engineering approaches. Geodia barretti (Gb), Geodia atlantica (Ga), Stelletta normani (Sn), Phakellia ventilabrum (Pv), and Axinella infundibuliformis (Ai), were morphologically characterized to assess macro and microstructural features, as well as chemical composition of the skeletons, using optical and scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and microcomputed tomography analyses. Moreover, compress tests were conducted to determine the mechanical properties of the skeletons. Results showed that all studied sponges have porous skeletons with porosity higher than 68%, pore size superior than 149 μm and higher interconnectivity (>96%), thus providing interesting models for the development of scaffolds for tissue engineering. Besides that, EDS analyses revealed that the chemical composition of sponges, pointed that demosponge skeletons are mainly constituted by carbon, silicon, sulfur, and oxygen combined mutually with organic and inorganic elements embedded its internal architecture that can be important features for promoting bone matrix quality and bone mineralization. Finally, the morphological, mechanical, and chemical characteristics here investigated unraveled the potential of deep-sea sponges as a source of biomaterials and biomimetic models envisaging tissue engineering applications for bone regeneration.

中文翻译：

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作为组织工程支架仿生模型的北大西洋深海海绵的宏观和微观结构特征

海绵普遍存在于海洋领域和一些深海区域，它们主导着海底群落，形成复杂的生物栖息地——海绵地面、聚集体、花园和珊瑚礁。然而，在支持蓝色增长战略的生物技术潜力方面，对深海海绵和海绵地面的研究仍然很少。在这项研究的范围内，对五种主要的北大西洋深海海绵进行了表征，以阐明在人类健康中的有前景的应用，即骨组织工程方法。Geodia barretti (Gb)、Geodia atlantica (Ga)、Stelletta normani (Sn)、Phakellia ventilabrum (Pv) 和 Axinella infundibuliformis (Ai) 进行形态学表征以评估宏观和微观结构特征，以及骨骼的化学成分，使用光学和扫描电子显微镜、能量色散 X 射线光谱和显微计算机断层扫描分析。此外，还进行了压缩测试以确定骨架的机械性能。结果表明，所有研究的海绵都具有孔隙率高于 68%、孔径超过 149 μm 和更高的互连性（>96%）的多孔骨架，从而为组织工程支架的开发提供了有趣的模型。除此之外，EDS分析揭示了海绵的化学成分，指出demosponge骨架主要由碳、硅、硫和氧相互结合构成，有机和无机元素嵌入其内部结构，这些元素可以成为促进骨基质质量的重要特征和骨矿化。最后，形态学上，