Day 3 :
- Extended Networking Session
Session Introduction
Ravi K. Birla
University of Houston, Houston, United States
Title: Tissue and Organ Fabrication for the Heart
Biography:
Ravi Birla has completed his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston, where he also serves as Director of the Artificial Heart Laboratory. His research is in Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering and he has published over 40 peer reviewed scientific papers and also a recent textbook in the area.
Abstract:
Treatment of cardiovascular disorders remains a major medical challenge. Pharmacological interventions, mechanical assist devices and heart transplantation have provided life saving options. While heart transplantation has been the most successful treatment modality for end stage heart failure, chronic shortage of donor organs has limited widespread applicability. Tissue engineering has tremendous potential to provide alternative treatment modalities that could help alleviate the donor heart crisis. Cardiac tissue engineering strategies are focused on the development of functional 3-dimensional (3D) patches, fabricated by culturing cells within a natural or synthetic scaffold. Applied to a clinical scenario, 3D heart muscle could be sutured onto the surface of injured left ventricular tissue to support/augment contractile function. Research at the Artificial Heart Laboratory (AHL) is focused on the development of 3D cardiovascular tissue constructs. We have projects focused on the development of heart muscle, blood vessels, tri-leaflet valves, cell based cardiac pumps, bioartificial ventricles and hearts. In addition, we have projects focused on supporting technologies. These include perfusion systems to support long-term culture and bioreactors for electromechanical stimulation. During the past several years, we have developed the building blocks required for the fabrication and culture of cardiovascular tissue constructs – in this presentation, we will provide an overview of platform technology required to bioengineer functional 3D cardiovascular tissue constructs.
Seyed Abdolreza Mortazavi Tabatabaei
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Title: Adipocyte derived mesenchymal stem cell supports keratinocyte growth in a modified collagen-hyalorunic acid matrix
Biography:
SA Mortazavi Tabatabaei has completed his Medical doctorate at the age of 25 years from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and hid PhD at the age of 40 years from Shahid Beheshti University School of Medicine. He is the scientific member of Cell Therapy department in School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine. He has published more than 20 papers in ISI journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of some medical journals.
Abstract:
Skin loss can occur due to many reasons including burns, diabetic wounds, venous ulcers, trauma, genetic disorders and etc... . Although much progress has been made towards the development of skin engineering but these are not completely efficient and require to improvement. It is known that many types of cells including fibroblasts and bone marrow stem cells improve performance of composite skin substitutes. Secretion of collagen matrix and epidermal differentiation takes place after mesenchymal epithelial communication. Development of the better transplantable dermal layers that support keratinocyte proliferation is very important for therapeutic option. Here we worked on an autologous construct as a successful skin substitute by culture of human Adipocyte Derived Mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSC) and human keratinocytes on the Hyalorunic acid-Collagen matrix. Bi-layer skin culture was generated by using biodegradable Hyalorunic acid-Collagen matrix. To analyze the effects of the hADMSC on the epithelial regeneration, keratinocytes were seeded onto the hADMSC-populated matrix and cultured at 37°C, in a 5% CO2 and 20% O2 humidified atmosphere. First, 106 hADMSC were seeded onto the matrix and cultured for 3 days in the basal medium. Then, keratinocytes were overlaid on the hADMSC and cultured for other 7 days in complete keratinocyte medium. We have evaluated the growth behavior of hADMSC and keratinocytes as a co-culture on the Col-HA layer. The obtained results revealed that the designed co-culture has a high potential for human keratinocyte proliferation. Keratinocytes without ADMSC-support formed only an irregular layer. This suggests that mesenchymal intercellular communications are necessary for proliferation and stratification of human keratinocytes. Keratinocytes cultured with hADMSC expressed Ck10 and Ck14 in supra-basal layer. However ADMSC is not a part of normal skin but it could promote the epidermal regeneration as describes previously for the bone marrow stem cell and other progenitor cells. Our data propose ADMSC as an efficient and safe source of feeder cells for the generation of keratinocyte autografts without immunological complications.