Engineered N-cadherin substrates for stem cell differentiation

In the case of injury, aging, or disease, tissues in the body may have a limited capability to regenerate. As a result, great interest have been put into tissue engineering as a way to assemble functional constructs that restore, maintain, or improve those tissues. Certain success was made to modulate neural differentiation of stem cells using soluble factors and cell adhesion matrix properties. These differentiation studies are often dependent on the density of cells plated on the substrate, which implies that there is an important role of cadherin-modulated cell-cell adhesion in regulating stem cell differentiation levels. As a result, the goal for this research is to develop a hydrogel platform which integrates the effects of N-cadherin and matrix stiffness to modulate cell differentiation. To create this system, Fc-tagged N-cadherins are attached to alginate gels of varying stiffness through Protein A, which is chemically bound to the surface. Different cells known to express N-cadherin were seeded onto the gels, with the bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) showing the best adhesion properties. This study thus demonstrates that N-cadherin substrates can be used to promote cell adhesion, and may be useful for differentiation studies with BMSCs.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Qin, Ellen C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kong, Hyunjoon
• Leckband, Deborah E.

• N-cadherin
• Hydrogel
• Stiffness
• Bone marrow stromal cell

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Ellen Qin

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92878

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/92878