Date of Graduation

5-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Wolchok, Jeffrey C.

Committee Member/Reader

Muldoon, Timothy J.

Committee Member/Second Reader

Kartik Balachandran

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate potential effects aging had on muscle fiber area and satellite cell count in myocytes. This research could help elucidate the detrimental effect age has on regenerative capabilities whether in terms of satellite cell function or satellite cell number. Satellite cells are primarily responsible for generating new muscle tissue after being activated through mechanotransduction of injury. This study utilized immunofluorescence to examine the presence of the PAX7 gene expression, a unique marker of satellite cells, within a 12 month and 18 month old population of mice. The PAX7 marker was co-stained with DAPI to identify nuclei and mark positive satellite cells. Fiber area was calculated with ImageJ image processing, and the satellite cells were counted by hand. The difference in fiber area of the two populations was negligible, but the satellite cell count was shown to be higher in younger populations.

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