The roles of electrically driven water flow on cellular viability, tissue repair and polarity.

这个项目将研究电是如何产生力量使水通过人体最微小的空间。为了维持人类的生命，水流通常流经数千英里的血管，为细胞提供营养并清除它们的废物。在没有血液流动的情况下，细胞会窒息或饿死。在没有血流的情况下，细胞间的电驱动水流比压力驱动水流更有利于促进细胞存活。这种方法将有助于在构建新血管网络之前的组织工程中促进细胞存活。该项目还可能揭示电是如何促进由血管受损或缺失引起的退行性疾病的愈合的。作为该项目更广泛的教育影响的一部分，研究人员将为学生研究人员提供跨学科培训，并为中学科学教师提供专业发展讲习班，以提高他们将组织工程模块整合到课堂中的能力。软组织修复经常受到血流不足或缺乏的困扰，细胞外基质和细胞周围的间质血流丢失。当间隙流由电或压力产生时，本项目将利用荧光分析表征间隙流对细胞活力和增殖的影响。此外，细胞用于感知电驱动水流的机械敏感途径将使用实时荧光成像和蛋白质操作的组合来表征。最后，众所周知，外加电场在二维培养中会使细胞极化，但它们在三维培养中的作用尚不清楚。电驱动的水流将在3D培养中测试极化细胞，以帮助修复受损组织所需的新组织的直接生长。本研究结果将对指导当前医学干预在物理治疗中的软组织修复、手术方法以及高级组织工程中组织和器官的存活具有重要影响。支持这项研究的科学和工程还将通过“教教师”培训讲习班，向中学学生推广组织工程模块。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate how electricity generates force to move water through the tiniest spaces in the human body. To support human life, water flow commonly occurs through thousands of miles of blood vessels to provide cells with nutrients and remove their waste products. In the absence of blood flow, cells suffocate or starve. Electrically driven water flow between cells provides significant advantages over pressure driven flow for promoting cell survival in the absence of blood flow. This approach will be useful for promoting cell survival during tissue engineering prior to building of a new blood vessel network. This project may also reveal how electricity promotes healing of degenerative diseases caused by damaged or absent blood vessels. As part of the educational broader impacts of this project, investigators will provide cross-disciplinary training for student researchers and provide professional development workshops for secondary-school science teachers to enhance their ability to integrate tissue engineering modules into their classrooms.Soft tissue repair is often plagued by poor or absent blood flow, and interstitial flow in the extracellular matrix and around cells is lost. This project will characterize the effects of interstitial flow on cellular viability and proliferation using fluorescent assays, when interstitial flow is generated by electricity or pressure. In addition, mechanosensitive pathways used by cells to sense electrically driven water flow will be characterized using a combination of real-time fluorescence imaging and protein manipulation. Finally, applied electric fields are well known to polarize cells in 2D culture but their usefulness in 3D culture is unknown. Electrically driven water flow will be tested to polarize cells in 3D culture, in order to help direct growth of new tissues required for repair of damaged tissues. Results from this work will be influential for guiding current medical interventions for soft tissue repair during physical therapies, surgical methods, and survival of tissues and organs during advanced tissue engineering. The science and engineering supporting this research will also be used to promote tissue engineering modules for students in secondary education through a ‘teach the teachers’ training workshop.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.