Date of Graduation
5-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Song, Young Hye
Abstract
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) have major physical implications on those affected[1]. There are two main types of scarring that occur after injury; they are known as the glial and fibrotic scar. The injured site causes an altered micro-environment which transforms astrocytes from their normal to reactive state, thus inhibiting axonal regeneration. The effect of reactive astrocytes on fibrotic scarring is not fully understood due to limited study[2,3]. Using Three-Dimensional (3D) bioengineered co-cultures of astrocytes and neuroblasts the pathological environment can be replicated and manipulated to further the study of fibrotic scarring. Temperature casted co-cultures were successfully created at different neuroblast seeding densities. Analyses of these bioengineered cultures revealed that neuroblast migration, also known as branching, occurs in healthy tissue when seeded as spheroids and it was found to be significant between the different casting methods at specific densities.
Keywords
Spinal Cord Injury, Fibrotic Scarring, Bioengineered Co-Cultures, Temperature Casting
Citation
Aly, S. (2023). Optimizing Three-Dimensional Bioengineered Co-Cultures for the Study of Fibrotic Spinal Cord Injury. Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/bmeguht/138