Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Mechanisms Underlying Stem Cell Depletion In Ageing., Mackenzie Hsu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As we age, our bodies lose the ability to repair damaged tissues. This impairment may be due to age-related deficits in our regenerative stem cells. Stem cells reside in specialized areas called stem cell niches. Ageing may cause alterations in the stem cells directly or may alter the stem cell niche to generate deficits. However, systematic studies mapping stem cell deficits and alterations to stem cell niche are lacking. Here, I investigated the bone marrows of young and aged mice to determine age-related changes in the microenvironment that may alter resident stem cells.

To achieve my research objective, I examined …

Mechanisms Underlying Enhanced Bone Marrow Adipogenesis In Diabetes, Jina J.Y. Kum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes are due to secondary vascular complications that include both micro- and macro-vascular organ dysfunctions. Our recent studies show that vascular dysfunction and inadequate vessel repair in diabetes may potentially be due to impaired vasculogenesis (de novo vessel formation). Specifically, we have shown that diabetes enhances adipogenesis in the bone marrow and reduces the number of marrow-resident vascular regenerative stem cells. In this study, I have determined the mechanisms of deleterious bone marrow adipogenesis, which may alter the cellular composition of the marrow and lead to the depletion of vascular regenerative stem cells.

My …

Mechanisms Regulating Stem Cell Phenotype In Infantile Hemangioma, Niamh Richmond

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are benign vascular neoplasms characterized by the differentiation of multipotential stem cells (hemSCs) into endothelial cells during the early proliferative phase, and later into adipocytes during spontaneous involution. Transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) has been shown to be significantly elevated upon IH involution and this coincides with repression of a developmentally-regulated transcription factor T-box 2 (TBX2). These findings implicate both TGFβ and TBX2 in mediating hemSC differentiation during IH evolution. The aim of my study is to understand the role of TGFβ and TBX2 in hemSC differentiation. I performed immunofluorescence staining to localize TBX2 protein in sectioned IH …