Honors Theses and Capstones

Promoting differentiation of stem cells through surface modification

Date of Award

2017

Project Type

Thesis

College or School

CEPS

Department

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Kyung Jae Jeong

Abstract

Stem cells, characterized by their capacity for self-renewal and differentiation into multiple lineages, have great potential for many areas of biomedical engineering. Stem cell growth and differentiation are controlled by numerous chemical and mechanical signals. Here we present two examples in which the differentiation of stem cells into the desired lineage can be enhanced by the surface chemistry. The first is a multifunctional surface chemistry for the improved tissue-implant integration by promoting osteoblastic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells on the implant surface. The second example focuses on differentiating neural stem cells into neurons on modified titanium oxide surfaces. The surface chemistries of both materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or rat neural stem cells, respectively, were cultured on the surfaces, and the initial adhesion and the long-term differentiation were observed by fluorescence microscopy and several biological assays.

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