Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Impedance Sensing Of N2a And Astrocytes As Grounds For A Central Nervous System Cancer Diagnostic Device, Fraser Traves Smith Grove

Master's Theses

This thesis utilizes previously described manufacturing and design techniques for the creation of a PDMS-glass bonded microfluidic device, capable of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). EIS has been used across various fields of research for different diagnostic needs. The major aim of this thesis was to capture cancerous and non-cancerous cells between micron sized electrodes within a microfluidic path, and to complete analysis on the measured impedances recorded from the two differing cell types. Two distinct ranges of impedance frequency were analyzed – the α dispersion range, which quantifies the impedance of the membranes of the cells of interest, and the …

Quantitative, Spatial Imaging Based Measurements To Assess Cellular Health And Oxygenation In A Tissue Engineered Test System, Erik Bland

All Dissertations

Three-dimensional in vitro tissue test systems are employed to examine cell behavior, test responses to drugs and vaccines, and answer basic biological questions. These systems are more physiologically relevant than two-dimensional cell cultures, and are more relevant, easier and less expensive to maintain than animal models. However, methods used to measure cell behavior and viability have been developed specifically for two-dimensional cell cultures or animal models, and are often not optimally translated to three-dimensional in vitro test systems. The purpose of this work was to aid in the development of three-dimensional, spatially controlled in vitro test systems, and to develop …

Sendai Virus-Based Liposomes Enable Targeted Cytosolic Delivery Of Nanoparticles In Brain Tumor-Derived Cells, Veronica Dudu, Veronica Rotari, Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

BACKGROUND: Nanotechnology-based bioassays that detect the presence and/or absence of a combination of cell markers are increasingly used to identify stem or progenitor cells, assess cell heterogeneity, and evaluate tumor malignancy and/or chemoresistance. Delivery methods that enable nanoparticles to rapidly detect emerging, intracellular markers within cell clusters of biopsies will greatly aid in tumor characterization, analysis of functional state and development of treatment regimens.

RESULTS: Experiments utilized the Sendai virus to achieve in vitro, cytosolic delivery of Quantum dots in cells cultured from Human brain tumors. Using fluorescence microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy, in vitro experiments illustrated that these virus-based …

Biomolecular Mechanisms And Functional Characterization Of Nanomaterials In Programmed Cancer Cell Death For Potential Applications In Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, And Bioengineering, Md. Zakir Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer bionanotechnology is an interdisciplinary area of research in applied biosciences, biomedical engineering, and nano-medicine. Currently, apoptotic cell death inducers and regulators are considered to have significant potential for cancer therapy. The ability to escape apoptosis is one of the key properties of human cancer. Pancreatic cancer that has the highest fatality rates of all cancers is prompt to evade apoptosis. Nanomaterials like Ni NWs have various novel properties that could be very useful in bio-medical applications at the molecular and cellular levels. The overall objective of this research was to investigate the antiproliferative and apoptogenic properties of Ni NWs …

Impedance-Based Detection Of Tissue Using A Multi-Electrode Device, Shane Killian Fleshman

Master's Theses

Melanoma skin cancer is the abnormal growth of the melanocytes – the pigmented cells located in the epidermis. The current gold standard diagnostic technique for determining whether a lesion is cancerous involves subjectively examining suspicious lesions and performing an invasive biopsy to confirm melanoma. This method may neglect some lesions or cause scarring from biopsies that turn out to be benign. Thus, impedance-based detection using a multi-electrode device was investigated as a noninvasive technique to diagnose melanoma skin cancer. The multi-electrode device was designed with 8 equally spaced Ag/AgCl electrodes surrounding one central electrode at a 5 mm radius. The …

Migration And Invasion Of Brain Tumors, Richard A. Able, Jr., Veronica Dudu, Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

Recent advances in molecular biology have led to new insights in the development, growth and infiltrative behaviors of primary brain tumors (Demuth and Berens, 2004; Huse and Holland, 2010; Johnson et al., 2009; Kanu et al., 2009). These tumors are derived from various brain cell lineages and have been historically classified on the basis of morphological and, more recently, immunohistochemical features with less emphasis on their underlying molecular pathogenesis (Huse and Holland, 2010). The detailed molecular characterization of brain tumors has laid the groundwork for augmentation of standard treatment with patient-specific designed targeted therapies (Johnson et al., 2009; Kanu et …

Energy Deposition In The Breast During Ct Scanning: Quantification And Implications For Dose Reduction, Franco Rupcich, Iacovos Kyprianou, Andreu Badal, Taly Gilat Schmidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Studies suggest that dose to the breast leads to a higher lifetime attributable cancer incidence risk from a chest CT scan for women compared to men. Numerous methods have been proposed for reducing dose to the breast during CT scanning, including bismuth shielding, tube current modulation, partial-angular scanning, and reduced kVp. These methods differ in how they alter the spectrum and fluence across projection angle. This study used Monte Carlo CT simulations of a voxelized female phantom to investigate the energy (dose) deposition in the breast as a function of both photon energy and projection angle. The resulting dose deposition …

Combining Molecular And Imaging Biomarkers To Enhance Maldi Biomarker Analysis, Ayyappa Chowdary Vadlamudi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a three-step method to predict prostate cancer (PCa) regions on biopsy tissue samples based on high confident, low resolution PCa regions marked by a pathologist. First, a prediction model is designed to predict PCa regions using matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) tissue imaging data from one prostate tissue slice. Second, a texture analysis technique is applied to a high magnification optical image for the same purpose from an adjacent tissue slice. Finally, those two results are fused to obtain the PCa regions that will assist MALDI imaging biomarker analysis. Experiments show that the texture analysis based …

A Review Of Autoimmune Diseases Associated With Cancer, Patricia Tai, Edward Yu, Kurian Joseph, Thomas Miale

Oncology Publications

The focus of this review is on the relationships between autoimmune diseases and cancer from two closely related perspectives: 1.Those autoimmune diseases which are often associated with malignancies. 2.Those prevalent cancers which may increase the risks of developing autoimmune disorders. The review concludes with a brief discussion of some selected innovative approaches to cancer immunotherapy.

Understanding The Molecular Dynamics Of Ypel3 And Fhit Gene Expression, Kevin Daniel Kelley

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive understanding of the molecular signaling pathways that regulate cell growth and proliferation is essential in the realization of new therapeutic options to facilitate early detection and eradication of malignancy. Understanding the transcriptional regulation of the YPEL3 and FHIT genes forms the basis of this dissertation. YPEL3, or Yippee-like 3, is a newly identified p53 target gene that inhibits tumor cell growth and is thus itself, a novel tumor suppressor gene. FHIT, or Fragile histidine triad, is a well known tumor suppressor gene and is regulated at the transcriptional level by another growth inhibitory protein, FOXO3a, a Forkhead box …

Quantification Of Vascular Parametric Indices Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Areen Khaled Al.Bashir

Wayne State University Dissertations

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is a non-invasive method used to evaluate the biological activity in early clinical trials of novel drugs targeting the tumor vasculature using gadolinium-DTPA (Gd) as a contrast agent. However, it has some limitations, such as reproducibility, data acquisition times, the presence of noise, extracting contrast concentration, estimating T1 relaxation and estimating pharmacokinetic parameters.

In this work, a new approach to used fixed T1(0) which provides more reproducible DCE results has been introduced. Using this new algorithm to quantify the vascular changes in DCE-MRI, a pre-clinical renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tumor model was used to …

Nanivid : A New Research Tool For Tissue Microenvironment Studies, Waseem Khan Raja

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Metastatic tumors are heterogeneous in nature and composed of subpopulations of cells having various metastatic potentials. The time progression of a tumor creates a unique microenvironment to improve the invasion capabilities and survivability of cancer cells in different microenvironments. In the early stages of intravasation, cancer cells establish communication with other cell types through a paracrine loop and covers long distances by sensing growth factor gradients through extracellular matrices. Cellular migration both in vitro and in vivo is a complex process and to understand their motility in depth, sophisticated techniques are required to document and record events in real time. …

Prostate Cancer Region Prediction Using Maldi Mass Spectra, Ayyappa Vadlamudi, Shao-Hui Chuang, Xiaoyan Sun, Lisa Cazares, Julius Nyalwidhe, Dean Troyer, O. John Semmes, Jiang Li, Frederic D. Mckenzie

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

For the early detection of prostate cancer, the analysis of the Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in serum is currently the most popular approach. However, previous studies show that 15% of men have prostate cancer even their PSA concentrations are low. MALDI Mass Spectrometry (MS) proves to be a better technology to discover molecular tools for early cancer detection. The molecular tools or peptides are termed as biomarkers. Using MALDI MS data from prostate tissue samples, prostate cancer biomarkers can be identified by searching for molecular or molecular combination that can differentiate cancer tissue regions from normal ones. Cancer tissue regions are …

Inducing A Normal Phenotype In Breast Epithelial Cells Using A Three-Dimensional Basement Membrane Extract Culture System: A Study On The Reversion Of Cancer, Ross H. Booth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Experimentally, traditional developmental models and transgenic animals consistently underscore the importance of studying cell behavior in the correct tissue context. However, live animal experimentation is inherently complex, and systematic assessment of the effects of individual variables, such as cell shape and matrix compliance on cell behavior, is extremely difficult at best. Two-dimensional monolayer culture of key individual cell types has provided abundant, fundamental information on cell response, but cannot be used to show the normal phenotype of breast epithelial cells. Furthermore, their results often fail to translate into in vivo and clinical studies. It has been previously established that normal …

Bio-Signal Analysis In Fatigue And Cancer Related Fatigue;Weakening Of Corticomuscular Functional Coupling, Qi Yang

ETD Archive

Fatigue is a common experience that reduces productivity and increases chance of injury, and has been reported as one of most common symptoms with greatest impact on quality-of-life parameters in cancer patients. Neural mechanisms behind fatigue and cancer related fatigue (CRF) are not well known. Recent research has shown dissociation between changes in brain and muscle signals during voluntary muscle fatigue, which may suggest weakening of functional corticomuscular coupling (fCMC). However, this weakening of brain-muscle coupling has never been directly evaluated. More important information could be gained if fCMC is directly detected during fatigue because a voluntary muscle contraction depends …

Biochemical Characterization Of Htrf1 And Htep1, Two Proteins Involved In Telomere Maintenance, Kambiz Tahmaseb

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Telomeres are the structures that protect the ends of linear chromosomes from fusion and degradation. The telomere consists of tandem repeated DNA sequences that can range from hundreds of bases to kilo-bases depending on the organism. As the cells of an organism replicate their DNA, these repeats are lost due to the end replication problem, where the ends of linear DNA cannot be fully replicated. As the telomeres are shortened through each round of replication, they eventually reach a critical point. Once the telomeres are too short and the cell risks losing coding sequences, a signaling pathway is initiated that …

Accuracy And Precision Of Computer-Simulated Tissue Temperatures In Individual Human Intracranial Tumours Treated With Interstitial Hyperthermia, J A. Deford, Charles F. Babbs, U H. Patel, N E. Fearnot, J A. Marchosky, C J. Moran

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate knowledge of tissue temperature is necessary for effective delivery of clinical hyperthermia in the treatment of malignant tumours. This report compares computer-predicted versus measured intratumoral temperatures in 11 human subjects with intracranial tumours, treated with a conceptually simple 'conductive' interstitial hyperthermia system. Interstitial hyperthermia was achieved by the use of parallel arrays of implanted, electrically heated catheters. The tissue was warmed by thermal conduction and blood convection. Simulation of intratumoral temperatures was achieved by solving a modified bioheat transfer equation on a digital computer using a finite difference method. Comparison of intratumoral temperatures from simulations and measured values differed …

Use Of Combined Systemic Hypothermia And Local Heat Treatment To Enhance Temperature Differences Between Tumor And Normal Tissues, Charles F. Babbs, William D. Voorhees Iii, Robert R. Clark, David P. Dewitt

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The feasibility of combining local heat treatment with wholebody hypothermia in an effort to improve therapeutic gain was assessed. Superficial, non perfused phantom tumors were fashioned in eight anesthetized mongrel dogs by transplantation of the spleen from the abdomen to a subcutaneous site on the hind limb. After pretreatment of the animal with the vasodilator hydralazine (0.5 mg/kg, IV) to enhance normal tissue perfusion, the spleen implant was heated with a 2450-MHz microwave diathermy apparatus, first with the animal's core body temperature in the normal range (39°C) and then after the animal had been packed in ice to reduce core …

Biology Of Local Heat Therapy For Cancer, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Successful cancer therapy must selectively destroy tumor tissue while sparing the host's normal tissues. Local heat treatment can have such a selective effect because abnormalities in tumor blood vessels supply less oxygen to heat-stressed tumor cells and are less efficient in cooling tumor tissue by blood perfusion.

Theoretical Feasibility Of Vasodilator-Enhanced Local Tumor Heating, Charles F. Babbs, David P. Dewitt, William D. Voorhees, Janet S. Mccaw, Rosanna C. Chan

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Normal arterioles, in contrast to the abnormal microvasculature of many solid tumors, provide a target for selective drug action that can enhance local heat treatment of the tumors. Measurements of tissue blood flow with radioactive microspheres and estimates of changes in blood flow with thermal clearance methods revealed that vasodilator drugs either decreased or did not alter blood flow in hamster melanoma, rat hepatoma, and canine transmissible venereal tumor, while increasing perfusion in adjacent normal tissues 2 to 4-fold. Solutions of the bio-heat transfer equation, which take into account such selective effects of vasodilators on blood flow in normal tissues, …

Physical Principles Of Local Heat Therapy For Cancer, Charles F. Babbs, David P. Dewitt

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Local hyperthermia therapy for cancer can produce selective heating of solid tumors on the basis of known physical laws. If energy is deposited in the general region of the tumor, temperature tends to develop in the tumor higher than that in surrounding normal tissues. The goal of therapy is to achieve cytotoxic temperature elevations in the tumor for an adequate period of time, without damaging nearby normal tissues. Several modalities exist for local heat treatment, of which radiofrequency and ultrasound offer the most promise for controlled, localized heating at depth. A paucity of blood flow in the tumor compared to …