Chengchuan Xiao
Pronouns: he/him/his
Research Mentor(s): Lonnie Shea
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Biomedical Engineering / Engineering
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: Breakout Room 1
Authors: Chengchuan Xiao, Russell Urie
Presenter: 6
Abstract
Concurrent means of quantifying immune response are usually expensive and invasive. This study aims to develop a novel device for surveilling allogeneic immune responses in solid organ transplantation and in pregnancy. To form novel tissue engineering scaffolds for immune cell capture, a mixture of sodium chloride and poly-caprolactone polymer are compacted to form tiny flakes. The flakes are first heated and cooled so that the organic polymer can melt down and form a scaffold-like structure around sodium chloride crystals, then placed in water to dissolve away the sodium chloride; thus, the scaffolds are composed of micron-scale pores. When implanted in murine subcutaneous tissues, these scaffolds develop vasculature and trap immune cells in them. To demonstrate that the scaffold-captured cells recapitulate the immune response in transplanted organs or the pregnant womb, the white blood cell phenotypes in the scaffolds are compared to those of peripheral blood and target organs. If the composition and gene expression of scaffold cellss are more similar to target organs than peripheral blood, then it should be an effective way in surveillance of the immune system. The final results still remain to be processed.
Engineering, Interdisciplinary, Natural/Life Sciences
