Date of Graduation

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Song, Young Hye

Abstract

Despite significant progress in the field of peripheral nerve repair, clinical success is still limited, leaving millions to suffer from peripheral neuropathy with billions spent every year for treatment. Nerve repair methods that are capable of maximizing the regenerative properties of peripheral nerves are greatly desired in the field of medical science. This research aims to fill the gap between modern methods and the future of nerve repair by creating type-I collagen scaffolds with aligned degradation pores that will assist and nurture nerves growing through them. This is achieved by incorporating adipose stem cells into type-I collagen hydrogels and aligning the collagen fibers via uniaxial gel compression. While there are still many tests to run to determine the effectiveness, type-I collagen gels with aligned degradation pores generated by adipose stem cells were successfully created. The aligned gels had statistically significant (p-value of .00565) collagen fiber alignment compared to non-aligned counterparts. We also saw that these gels are capable of hosting and maintaining cell viability through the use of live-dead imaging and multiphoton microscopy. Following suit with the collagen fiber alignment, significant alignment of both adipose stem cells and their degradation pores was determined through the analysis of multiphoton imaging.

Keywords

Biomedical Engineering; Tissue Engineering; Nerve Repair

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