A key challenge in tissue engineering is overcoming cell death in the scaffold interior due to the limited diffusion of oxygen and nutrients therein. We hypothesized here that immobilizing a gradient of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-165) would guide endothelial cells into the interior of the scaffold thereby enhancing angiogenesis. The protein was immobilized onto a collagen scaffold through carbodiimide chemistry by one of the three methods experimented: placing 5 µl of the solution at the center of the scaffold to create a ~2 ng/ml/mm gradient in a radial direction. D4T endothelial cells were observed to be guided by this VEGF-165 gradient deep into the center of the scaffold compared to both uniformly immobilized VEGF-165 and VEGF-free controls. We concluded that the VEGF-165 gradient scaffolds promoted the migration, and not proliferation, of cells deep into the scaffold. These gradient scaffolds provide the foundation for future in vivo tissue engineering studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/29595 |
| Date | 25 August 2011 |
| Creators | Odedra, Devangbhai |
| Contributors | Radisic, Milica, Shoichet, Molly |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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