Date of Last Revision

2023-05-02 14:14:23

Major

Chemistry - Biochemistry

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2015

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a scientific methodology that provides the means for fabrication of vital tissues in a laboratory with the ultimate goal of translating the tissue to a patient in a clinic. It is a desirable technique in clinical medicine because it eliminates the need for patient tissue grafts and transplants, which have the potential for donor site morbidity and rejection. In tissue engineering, the scaffolding material, typically a polymer upon which tissue is grown, is important. The goal of this research is to investigate optimization of tissue-engineered polymer scaffold constructs for cell proliferation and gene expression. This work includes an analysis of scaffold type to determine the appropriate engineered materials for growing human periosteum. Many scaffolding materials have been investigated for tissue-engineering purposes; however, the present study will be examining novel scaffolds for growing periosteum, those scaffolds being composed of hydroxyapatite (HA) or beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) with polylactic acid/polycaprolinic acid [P(LA/CL)]. To conduct this analysis, histology of tissue-engineered constructs will be utilized to determine cell proliferation, and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) will be applied to determine gene expression of construct cells. Results will be compared to determine differences in fold-change expression levels of several genes of interest that may be affected by the two different scaffolds. The initial findings of the study showed that there were few significant differences in gene expression between the scaffolds composed of HA or β-TCP.

Research Sponsor

Dr. William J. Landis

First Reader

Robin Jacquet

Second Reader

Dr. Claire Tessier

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