Engineering Commons^™

A Synthetic Human Brain Ecm Hydrogel For Tight Control Of Astrocyte Activation, Sualyneth Galarza

Doctoral Dissertations

Bioengineers have aimed to design instructive extracellular matrix (ECM) models that can tailor the protein composition and biomechanics of the brain in vitro in order to study how astrocytes remodel the brain during trauma and inflammation. However, these parameters cannot be independently controlled in protein-based models, and although tunable in synthetic systems, current astrocyte cultures fail to retain their characteristic stellate morphology without becoming activated. To this date, there is no biomaterial model that can retain astrocyte quiescence in vitro. This dissertation sought to develop such an in vitro model that would enable the study of specific ECM factors …