(648d) Gelatin Microspheres As Scaffolds for Adipose Derived Stem Cells and Liver Tissue Engineering

At present, organ transplantation is the only means for treating various kinds of tissue failures. Though this approach has been employed for a long time now, it is still associated with issues such as donor organ shortage and immune rejections. Stem cell based tissue engineering seems to be an exciting and revolutionary strategy which can replace organ transplantation in treating damaged tissues. Embryonic stem cells and various adult stem cells are being investigated for this purpose and each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. Adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) that are isolated from lipoaspirates are gaining interest in the recent times because of their ease of availability in large numbers and their multi-potential differentiation ability.

However, there are quite a few challenges which need to be overcome for the viable usage of such stem cell therapies for regenerative medicine applications. One such major challenge is to find a compatible platform for the in vitro growth and in vivo delivery of these cells in a viable and functional state. In order to closely mimic the in vivo environment three dimensional cell culture matrices are being preferred over the traditional two dimensional cell culture practices. In the present work we aim to investigate the suitability of three dimensional Gelatin Microsphere (GM) scaffold systems as a platform for liver tissue reconstruction and for the growth and differentiation of these newly emerging ADSCs. Since gelatin is derived from collagen, GMs can act as replacement for extracellular matrix of the body.

A successful protocol has been established to isolate ADSCs from the adipose tissues harvested from human patients with signed consent in compliance with procedures approved by the institutional review board. Gelatin microspheres fabricated using a water in oil emulsion technique were tested for their suitability for in vitro growth and differentiation of ADSCs by studying their proliferation using MTT assay and by differentiating them towards adipogenic lineage. Our results show that Gelatin microspheres were able to support the growth and differentiation of ADSCs.

In a simultaneous study we have also investigated the suitability of GMs for liver tissue engineering by culturing human hepatoma cells. According to our results the liver cells were able to proliferate and function better on GMs compared to the 2D tissue culture plates and were able to form tissue like cell-microsphere constructs.

Thus our results until now show that GMs are good platforms for culturing ADSCs and for liver tissue engineering. In future we aim to combine these two strategies to develop a ADSCs therapy for liver tissue reconstruction using gelatin microspheres as platforms.