Electrically Active Scaffold for Stem Cell Differentation

ID：MPS/dmr/bmat(7623)1006510 PI：Livingston，Treena ORG：新泽西州理工学院标题：用于干细胞分化的电活性支架内部优点：该项目将研究一种将作为干细胞诱导组织修复支架的压电材料的使用。这种压电材料起到了高度灵敏的机电换能器的作用，它会在微小的机械变形时产生电荷。通过开发一种压电纤维支架，该团队可以实现局部电场，这是一种类似于在发育和再生过程中观察到的自然细胞外基质的物理特性。由于其重要的临床应用需求，本文重点研究了用于全关节置换术的支架材料的设计和表征，即软骨和骨组织的重建，这将对智能材料和组织再生领域产生重大影响。将解决两个具体目标。目标1将制作并充分表征支架的压电性。将制造聚偏氟乙烯-三氟乙烯(PVDF-TrFE)纤维支架，并在更接近生物环境的条件下表征其电输出。为了将生物反应与机电活动联系起来，将使用一种新的显微技术来表征压电支架的局部纳米级的机电行为以及大块性质。目的2研究人骨髓间充质干细胞(MSCs)在压电支架上的成骨和成软骨分化情况。PI假设使用与天然细胞外基质具有相似物理特性的纤维支架将刺激MSCs的分化。BROADER影响：这项研究涉及使用一种新的智能材料与干细胞相结合，作为组织工程介质来再生严重的软骨缺损。这些研究提出了一系列将材料科学的进步与工程表征技术、纳米材料表征、微电子学、干细胞生物工程和分子生物学/生物工程技术相结合的综合研究。拟议的研究将在组织工程和再生医学、智能材料和生物材料领域产生重大影响。将压电材料应用于干细胞生物工程中所获得的见解也将与细胞生物学家和发育生物学家相关，因为压电细胞外基质存在于胚胎发育和伤口愈合过程中。该项目将对生物医学工程专业招聘和辅导任职人数不足的少数族裔和妇女产生重大影响。PI是三个项目的积极导师，这些项目让少数民族和女性学生早在小学和初中就接触到工程主题和项目。她将继续担任美国化学学会项目种子计划的导师，在该计划中，来自新泽西州纽瓦克社区的初中和高中学生在PI的实验室进行研究项目(每个暑期两名学生)。每年夏天，这些学生将通过学习干细胞分化分析和电纺网的制作来参与获得AIMS 1和2的结果。PI还将继续参与NJIT Femme计划，该计划每年夏天影响150名小学到初中女学生，并为学生提供参观和在PI的实验室中实践组织工程和生物材料项目的演示。此外，PI将继续指导NJIT McNair学位后成就项目中的少数族裔本科生，通过该项目，PI将每年与一到两名本科生合作，担任拟议项目的研究导师。

ID: MPS/DMR/BMAT(7623) 1006510 PI: Livingston, Treena ORG: NJ Institute of TechnologyTitle: Electrically Active Scaffold for Stem Cell DifferentiationINTELLECTUAL MERIT: This project will investigate the use of a piezoelectric material that will act as a scaffold for stem cell induced tissue repair. The piezoelectric material acts as a highly sensitive mechanoelectrical transducer that will generate charges in response to minute mechanical deformations. By developing a piezoelectric, fibrous scaffold, the team can achieve a local electric field, which is a physical property similar to the natural extracelluar matrix observed during development and regeneration. This work focuses specifically on the design and characterization of these scaffolds for total joint replacement, i.e., for the reconstruction of cartilage and the underlying bone tissue, due to its vital clinical need, and therefore, will have significant impact on the fields of smart materials and tissue regeneration. Two specific aims will be addressed. Aim 1 will fabricate and fully characterize the piezoelectric properties of the scaffold. Piezoelectric polyvinylidine fluoride trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) fibrous scaffolds will be fabricated and characterized for electrical output in conditions that more closely mimic the biological setting. Piezoelectric scaffolds will be characterized for localized nanoscale electromechanical behavior using a novel microcopy technique as well as bulk properties in order to correlate biological response with electromechanical activity. Aim 2 will investigate the osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the piezoelectric scaffold in vitro. The PI hypothesizes that the use of a fibrous scaffold having similar physical properties as the native extracellular matrix will stimulate the differentiation of MSCs.BROADER IMPACTS: This study involves use of a novel smart material for use, in combination with stem cells, as a tissue engineering medium for regenerating severe cartilage defects. The studies propose a series of integrated investigations combining advances in materials science with engineering characterization techniques, nanomaterial characterization, microelectronics, stem cell bioengineering, and molecular biology/bioengineering techniques. The proposed studies will have significant impact in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, smart materials, and biomaterials. The insights gained in the application of piezoelectric materials to stem cell bioengineering will also be of relevance to cell biologists and developmental biologists, since piezoelectric extracellular matrices are present during embryogenesis and wound healing. This project will have a significant impact on the recruitment and mentoring of underrepresented minorities and women in Biomedical Engineering. The PI is an active mentor in three programs that expose minorities and female students to engineering topics and projects as early as the elementary and junior high school levels. She will continue to be a mentor in the American Chemical Society Project SEED program, in which junior and senior level high school students from the Newark, NJ community conduct research projects in the PI's laboratory (two students per summer). Each summer, these students will participate in obtaining results for aims 1 and 2 by learning stem cell differentiation assays and the fabrication of the electrospun meshes. The PI will also continue to participate in the NJIT FEMME program, which impacts 150 elementary to junior high school female students each summer and provides students with tours and hands-on demonstrations of tissue engineering and biomaterials projects in the PI's laboratory. In addition, the PI will continue to mentor minority undergraduate students in the NJIT McNair Postbaccalaurate Achievement Program, through which the PI will work with one to two undergraduate students per year as a research mentor on the proposed project.