Bound Volume Number
1
Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2015
Capstone Advisor
James H. Henderson, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering
Honors Reader
Carlos A. Castañeda, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology & Chemistry
Capstone Major
Biology
Audio/Visual Component
no
Keywords
Shape memory polymers, bioengineering, Thermoplastic polyurethane
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
yes
Honors Categories
Sciences and Engineering
Subject Categories
Biochemistry | Biological Phenomena, Cell Phenomena, and Immunity | Medical Biochemistry | Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Abstract
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of “smart” materials that can transform between two distinct conformations through external stimuli, such as heat or electricity. Their usage in bioengineering has led to a promising field of research that lies at the interface of cell and mechanobiology, potentially providing insight into cancer therapies and tissue development—two processes that exist in dynamic environments in vivo. The present work involves creating new, shape changing, scaffolds for studies to analyze cell migration upon changes to the environmental topography. Specifically, this Capstone has been primarily focused on the development of a “half and half” fibrous scaffold, entailing 50% aligned and 50% random fiber alignments separated by a clear interface, to model and better understand how the migratory patterns of both human fibrosarcoma cells (cell line: HT-1080) and murine mesenchymal stem cells (cell line: C3H10T1/2) respond to this architectural change. For example, it is thought that upon metastasis, cancerous cells are able to reorganize the collagen fibers in the extracellular matrix, and use this reorganized architecture as a guide to invade other tissue areas.
Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) SMPs were prepared by electrospinning 700-900nm diameter fiber to serve as a cellular scaffold. Through the development of these scaffolds, we are interested in investigating two related, and simultaneously-tested, hypotheses comprised of static and dynamic polymers (each containing static unaligned, and aligned [control] scaffolds, in addition to a thermoplastic 50/50 unaligned-aligned [experimental]—“Half and Half”—scaffold). In the development of these experimental scaffolds, we have attempted to develop a scaffold that demonstrates the aforementioned properties. Through four primary methods to trigger the recovery in only half of the scaffold, we have made progress in minimizing imperfections that result from this process, some of which include: thermal buckling and incomplete recovery. Upon finalizing the protocol used to develop these experimental groups, we will analyze the cells’ migratory rate and how that rate is influenced by time. We anticipate that cells will preferentially migrate faster on scaffolds with aligned fibers than on scaffolds with unaligned fibers, due to the presence of a consistent track for the cells to migrate. Simultaneously, we also will examine whether cells seeded on randomly-oriented fibers will sense these fibers and in the direction of increased orientation.
Recommended Citation
Elkhechen, Justin N., "The Use of Shape Memory Polymers as a Tool to Study Human Fibrosarcoma and Murine Mesenchymal Stem Cell Migration" (2015). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 820.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/820
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Included in
Biochemistry Commons, Biological Phenomena, Cell Phenomena, and Immunity Commons, Medical Biochemistry Commons, Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry Commons
