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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Understanding And Improving Adult Stem Cells For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Dakota Katz
Understanding And Improving Adult Stem Cells For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Dakota Katz
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Articular cartilage allows for near frictionless joint movement; however, when damaged the tissue has very little capacity for self-repair. Tissue engineering can be used to both repair damaged articular cartilage and as an in vitro model for joint disease. Commonly used cell sources for tissue engineering are adipose-derived and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs and MSCs) because they can be patient matched, expand rapidly in culture, and have multipotent differentiation potential. However, donor-to-donor variability of differentiation potential can mask the results of in vitro experiments and ASCs and MSCs only retain their multipotency for a limited number of passages. …
Engineering Nucleus Pulposus Cell-Matrix Interactions With Laminin Ligands For Tissue Regeneration, Julie Elizabeth Speer
Engineering Nucleus Pulposus Cell-Matrix Interactions With Laminin Ligands For Tissue Regeneration, Julie Elizabeth Speer
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Low back pain and degenerative conditions of the intervertebral disc (IVD) represent major global socioeconomic and medical burdens. The structures that comprise the IVD including the anulus fibrosis and the nucleus pulposus (NP) work together to stabilize the axial skeleton and distribute mechanical forces. However, the degenerative cascade, which is thought to begin with changes to the NP, results in alterations to the disc that can be seen across length scales including elongated cell shapes, tissue dehydration, and loss of disc height. Patients who present clinically with these changes may also experience altered biomechanics, pain upon motion, impairments to their …