Tissue-engineered liver microreactor as an in vitro surrogate assay for gene delivery

The lack of correlation between in vitro and in vivo gene delivery experiments presents a significant obstacle in the progress of gene therapy studies by preventing the extrapolation of successful cell culture results into animals. This phenomenon has also been documented in the specific case of liver where standard hepatocyte culture systems fail to reliably predict the in vivo performance of gene delivery vectors. This is possibly a consequence of the loss of differentiated phenotype that these cells undergo when they are dissociated from their in vivo environment and cultured in vitro. This problem underscores the necessity for better in vitro models that can mimic the physiological environment and responses of in vivo liver tissue. This thesis aimed at developing an alternative in vitro gene delivery assay based on the Tissue-Engineered Liver Microreactor, a culture system designed to facilitate the morphogenesis of three-dimensional tissue-like structures from isolated liver cells under continuous perfusion, maintain cell viability and hepatic functionality for long-term culture periods and enable repeated in situ observation with microscopy. We developed experimental assays to non-invasively detect and quantify gene delivery efficiency in the 3D environment of the microreactor culture based on the application of 2-photon microscopy and spectroscopy.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Kalezi, Artemis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Douglas A. Lauffenburger and Linda G. Griffith.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38981

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38981