Biological Engineering Commons^™

Alginate Hydrogels As Three-Dimensional Scaffolds For In Vitro Culture Models Of Growth Plate Cartilage Development And Porcine Embryo Elongation, Taylor D. Laughlin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The establishment of in vitro culture models utilizes tissue engineering principles to design functional mimics of in vivo environments in vitro. Advantages for the use of in vitro culture models include ethical alleviation of animal models for therapeutic testing, cost efficiency, and a greater ability to study specific mechanisms via a systematic, ground-up approach to development. In this thesis, alginate hydrogels are utilized in the development of in vitro culture models of porcine embryo elongation and growth plate cartilage development. First, the effect of scaffold and modifications to the scaffold were explored in both projects. In order to modulate …

Effect Of Extracellular Matrix (Ecm) Protein Micropatterns On The Behavior Of Human Neuroblastoma Cells, Ishwari Poudel

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent advances in patterning techniques and emerging surface microtechnologies have allowed cell micropatterning to control spatial location of the cells on a surface as well as cell shape, attachment area, and number of contacting neighbor cells. These parameters play important roles in cell cellular behaviors. Cell micropatterning has thus become one of the most important strategies for biomedical applications, such as, tissue engineering, diagnostic immunoassays, lab-on-chip devices, bio-sensing, etc., and cell biology studies as well. For neuronal cells, there have been attempts to distribute neuronal cells on specific patterns to control cell-to-cell interaction. However, there have been very limited understanding …

Quantitative Analysis Of The Reaction Between Gliadin And Citric Acid Under Weak Acidic And Weak Alkaline Conditions, Wei Li

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Gliadin was reacted with citric acid under weak acidic and weak alkaline conditions in both wet and dry states and the reaction mechanism was studied. The low morphological stability in an aqueous environment and inferior mechanical properties have restricted the applications of plant proteins, although these materials possess a unique structure, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Carboxylic acids such as citric acid are inexpensive and nontoxic chemicals and are preferred for crosslinking proteins and cellulose to improve the desired properties of the materials.

In this study, gliadin was chosen as a model of plant proteins to react with citric acid. However, previous …