The human bone marrow (BM) is one of the most complex and critical tissues in the adult, functioning as the site for blood and immune cell production in homeostasis, injury, and disease. The marrow acts as an incredibly diverse stem cell niche, containing stromal and blood cells that help support the maintenance and differentiation capacity of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). The cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions within the niche help alter the marrow to trigger blood cell production in response to injury, as well as harbor downstream changes that may persist in the hematopoietic system during disease, such as in cancer metastasis or leukemias of the BM. As the development of engineered human tissue models including organs-on-a-chip (OoC) have emerged over the past decade, there has been an increased relevance of using human BM models to study human- and patient-specific immune interactions in vitro. In this dissertation, we have developed patient-specific bioengineering technologies to model the BM, as well as those to study multi-organ interactions, for a host of translational applications of injury and disease. In Chapters 1 and 2, we introduce a number of concepts in bioengineering and stem cell biology for studying human organ functions outside of the body. In Chapter 3, we describe the tools that are critical for modeling individual organ functions (healthy human BM) and immune cells, as well as when combining multiple OoC systems together. In Chapter 4, we apply these tools for disease modeling, in studying the complex interactions in either acute leukemia development or metastatic colonization of the BM. In Chapter 5, we use our human-specific engineered models for studies of acute and systemic injury, including the effects of cosmic radiation on human tissue function. To tie together the tissue engineered tools developed in this thesis, we described in Chapter 6 the utility of scientific outreach and social media in the widespread dissemination of tissue engineering and stem cell principles to the broader scientific community and general public. Collectively, this dissertation provides a unique look at the use of engineered human tissue systems to model human blood and immune interactions using bioengineering tools, with applications in disease modeling of primary and metastatic cancers, as well as in acute and systemic injuries.

Blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has been a health concern in both military and civilian populations due to recent military and geopolitical conflicts. Military service members are frequently exposed to single and repeated blasts throughout their training and deployment. As a result of blast exposures, military personnel report symptoms of various neurological and neurosensory deficits. Our group has previously reported decreased long term potentiation (LTP) following either single or repeated bTBI in a rat organotypic hippocampal slice culture (OHSC) model. LTP is a neuronal correlate for learning and memory and is a neurological metric that can be used to evaluate blast injury severity and the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. In the first aim of this thesis, we characterized LTP deficits following repeated bTBI to develop tolerance criteria for blast exposures. We did so by varying the blast injury severity, the inter-blast interval between blasts, and the recovery period following blast exposure. We determined that LTP deficits were compounded as a result of repeated mild bTBI. LTP deficits were attenuated with increasing inter-blast intervals and with increasing recovery periods after injury. Even after three repeated mild bTBIs, LTP spontaneously recovered after 6 days. In the second aim, we investigated the pathological changes in OHSCs following repeated blast exposures. Following injury, we observed robust microglial activation, evidenced by increased expression of the pro-inflammatory marker, CD-68, and decreased expression of the anti-inflammatory marker, CD-206. We also observed increased expression of MIP-1α, IL-1β, MCP-1, IP-10, and RANTES and decreased expression of IL-10 in the acute period after both single and repeated bTBI. Following partial depletion of microglia prior to injury, injury induced LTP deficits were significantly reduced. Lastly, treatment with a novel drug, MW-189, immediately after a repeated bTBI prevented LTP deficits. In the third aim, we investigated changes in inflammatory markers like cyclooxygenase (COX) and tested the efficacy of COX or prostaglandin receptor (EP3R) inhibitors in attenuating LTP deficits. We observed that expression of COX-2 increased 48 hours following repeated blast injury; however, COX-1 expression was unchanged. Following repeated bTBI, EP3R expression was upregulated and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) concentration was decreased. Treatment of blast injured OHSCs with a COX-1 specific inhibitor, SC-560, a COX-2 specific inhibitor, rofecoxib, a pan-COX inhibitor, ibuprofen, or an EP3R inhibitor, L-798,106 improved LTP deficits. Delayed treatment with L-798,106 and ibuprofen also improved LTP deficits. Our data suggests that bTBI induced neuroinflammation may be partially responsible for the functional deficits that we have observed in blast-injured OHSCs. Additionally, we also conclude that COX and EP3R inhibition may be viable therapeutic strategies to reduce bTBI induced neurophysiological deficits. In the final aim, we investigated bTBI induced changes to the electrophysiological network of OHSCs. Following blast exposure, sham and injured OHSCs were administered increasing concentrations of bicuculline, a GABAA receptor antagonist. Doing so revealed an increase in connectivity and clustering coefficients in sham slices compared to injured slices. This suggested that the underlying neuronal network of injured slices was dysfunctional. Biologically, this dysfunction could be explained by the decreased expression of GABAA receptor α1 and α5 subunits. A loss of GABAA receptor expression or function may explain the electrophysiological network disruptions that we observed. More work will be required to determine how blast exposure decreases the expression of GABAA receptors and how these receptors may contribute to network deficits. This thesis has expanded upon the tolerance criteria for repeated blast exposures. These studies have also further characterized the pathological changes in microglial activation and explored promising therapeutic pathways that could be used to attenuate functional deficits. Lastly, this thesis has also provided novel ways to interrogate neuronal networks following blast injury, revealing subtle deficits that will need to be explored in more detail.

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Epithelial cells are the first line of defense against invading pathogens and external threats in the environment. Keratinocytes, often not perceived of as immune cells, release cytokines in response to infection or injury to signal danger to neighboring cells and recruit effector leukocytes to prevent further damage to the host. IL-1 and IL-36 cytokines are a group of closely related proteins that share similarities in structure and function and have been shown to play key roles in inflammatory responses of epithelial tissues. While IL-1, consisting of IL-1α and IL-1β, have been widely studied and recognized as pinnacle cytokines in a variety of inflammatory responses, relatively little is understood about IL-36 cytokines since their discovery more than 15 years ago, and how they differ from their better-known IL-1 relatives. IL-36 cytokines, consisting of IL-36α, IL-36β, and IL-36γ, signal through the same receptor, IL-36R, which is expressed most abundantly on epithelial cells. IL-36 proteins garnered attention when it was discovered that a missense mutation in the gene encoding the naturally occurring receptor antagonist, IL-36Ra, was associated with the deadly form of psoriasis, generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP). This disease is characterized by episodic flares of keratinocyte hyperproliferation leading to red scaly lesions all over the body, excessive neutrophil recruitment to the epidermis resulting in pustule formation, and severe fever. Our data presented here demonstrate that IL-36α, but not IL-36β or IL-36γ is critical for the psoriatic phenotype, including epidermal thickening and neutrophil recruitment, generated during a murine model of psoriasis induced by the drug Imiquimod. Furthermore, IL-36α was found to induce IL-1α expression and vice versa through a signaling feedback loop which perpetuated disease. These data provide insight into mechanisms whereby IL-36 signaling can lead to excessive inflammatory effects in patients with pre-existing regulation deficiencies, which can lead to acute flares of disease. Beyond their association with disease, IL-1 has been shown to contribute to anti-bacterial and anti-viral responses of the immune system by upregulating inflammatory signals and chemoattractants. Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1) is a human pathogen that has developed several strategies to manipulate elements of the immune system to avoid detection by the host. One such mechanism is the prevention of activation and release of IL-1β from infected cells thereby blocking its pro-inflammatory responses. Our data show that keratinocytes infected with HSV-1 actively release IL-1α to alert danger to neighboring cells to circumvent this blockage of IL-1β signaling. This release of IL-1α initiates recruitment of leukocytes to early HSV-1 microinfection sites resulting in increased protection against disease, as evident by the increased mortality rate of mice deficient in the IL-1 receptor, IL-1R1. This study, for the first time in vivo, demonstrates the ability of IL-1α to act as an alarmin to initiate an immune response to combat infection. The role of IL-36 cytokines during viral infections has been less defined than that of IL-1. Several studies have shown the upregulation of IL-36 expression during viral infections in epithelial tissues, such as HSV-1 and Influenza, yet a direct link has not been established between these proteins and anti-viral responses. Our research presented within this thesis show that IL-36β, but not IL-36α nor IL-36γ, provides protection against the lethal outcome of cutaneous HSV-1 infection, as demonstrated by IL-36β knockout mice dying earlier and more often than wild type mice. Surprisingly, while previous reports have found IL-36 cytokines to be capable of activating the adaptive immune system, our results found no significant differences in development of HSV-1 specific antibodies or CD8+ T cell development between wild type and IL-36β knockout mice. Furthermore, we found no significant differences in viral copy numbers at infection sites between the two groups. Although our data show that IL-36β clearly plays a critical role in controlling the outcome of HSV-1 infection, further studies are necessary to define the mechanisms behind this protection. The final section of this thesis focuses on the endogenous nature of IL-36 cytokines, specifically IL-36γ, and their potential processing. IL-36 cytokines were originally believed to be synthesized as full-length fully active proteins; however, large concentrations of the recombinant proteins were required to elicit cellular responses in vitro. Since then, studies have shown that IL-36 cytokines gained up to 1000-fold increases in reactivity following processing at very specific N-terminal locations of each individual cytokine, however this processing has never been shown to occur in vivo. These studies were recently expanded when neutrophil proteases were found to be responsible for processing of these proteins in vitro. Data presented here show, for the first time, that IL-36γ may be endogenously processed by neutrophils in wounded murine skin in vivo, yet, the amino acid processing site appears to be different from that predicted. Although further studies are required to fully characterize the nature of this processing, these data provide valuable insight into the natural mechanisms involved in the potential activation of these cytokines. Taken together, the research presented within this thesis sheds light on the mechanisms whereby IL-1 and IL-36 cytokines enhance immunological defenses against potential threats, and yet, can contribute to disease if unregulated. Furthermore, these studies demonstrate the evolutionary advantage of producing multiple cytokines that appear to have redundant roles within the body, yet can provide multiple levels of protection to the host. This knowledge contributes to our overall understanding of these proteins and their contribution to immunological systems within the body. / Microbiology and Immunology

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