Adult Stem Cell Enrichment via Biomechanical Characterization

脂肪来源的基质/干细胞（ASCs）为生物医学领域带来了令人兴奋的机会 工程. ASC作为用于组织再生程序的细胞来源是有吸引力的，因为它们易于 可用性和有限的供体部位发病率。过去的研究表明，这些细胞可以分化为 使用培养基补充剂将其转化为各种细胞类型，有效地引导它们朝向特定的细胞谱系， 感兴趣;软骨细胞、成骨细胞和脂肪细胞。我们实验室目前的研究表明， 分化的细胞和未分化的ASC具有其细胞特征性的生物力学性质 类型（即软骨细胞、成骨细胞、脂肪细胞）。该奖项独立阶段的目标是 通过它们的生物力学特性分离脂肪抽吸物内的细胞以产生谱系特异性细胞源 这将改善工程组织的功能性能。我们假设， 含有更高百分比的组织特异性干细胞的构建体将具有更好的生物力学性能， 和生物化学性质。测试 为此，我们将根据细胞的生物力学特性从吸脂废物组织中分选细胞， 评估其多能性。在进行这些研究的同时，我们将设计和制造一种装置， 能够基于细胞的机械特性分选大量细胞。由此产生的亚群 将具有可测量的力学性能分布，假设这些分布 表明ASC分化不同间充质谱系能力。组织工程软骨 然后使用异质的和机械分选的细胞群生长构建体， 确定干细胞富集如何影响组织形成的质量。整个项目将 在机械传导、干细胞生物学和组织学领域取得重大进展， 工程.

Adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) pose exciting opportunities for the field of biomedical engineering. ASCs are attractive as a cell source for tissue regeneration procedures because of their ready availability and limited donor-site morbidity. Past research has shown that these cells can be differentiated into a variety of cell types using media supplements, effectively guiding them towards specific lineages of interest; chondrocytic, osteoblastic, and adipocytic. Current studies in our laboratory indicate that fully differentiated cells and undifferentiated ASCs possess biomechanical properties characteristic of their cell type (i.e. chondrocyte, osteoblast, adipocyte). The goal of the Independent Phase of this Award is to separate ceiis within lipoaspirate by their biomechanical properties to produce lineage-specific cell sources that will improve the functional performance of engineered tissues. We hypothesize that engineered constructs containing a higher percentage of tissue-specific stem ceils wili possess better biomechanical and biochemical properties than constructs seeded with a more heterogeneous harvest population. To test this, we will sort ceils from liposuction waste tissue by their biomechanical properties and subsequently evaluate their multipotent character. Concurrent with these studies, we will design and fabricate a device capable of sorting large numbers of cells based on their mechanical characteristics. The resulting subpopulations will possess measurable distributions of mechanical properties, which are hypothesized to indicate an ASCs ability to differentiate down different mesenchymal lineages. Tissue engineered cartilage constructs will then be grown using either heterogeneous and mechanicaiiy-sorted cell populations to determine how stem ceil enrichment affects the quality of tissue formation. The entire proposed project will produce significant advances in the areas of mechanotransduction, stem cell biology, and tissue engineering.