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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until July 30, 2026

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The Influence of Synthetic Microenvironments in Determining Stem Cell Fate

Philip, Diana Liz
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6300-3522
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1627669247178055

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Biomedical Engineering.
As the extracellular matrix plays a crucial role in regulating cell behavior, synthetic polymer scaffolds have been fabricated to mimic the extracellular matrix. Synthetic polymer substrates are generally hydrophobic and lack bioactive cell recognition sites, resulting in low cell adhesion and proliferation. Overall, the work presented in this dissertation investigated how the addition of bioactive extracellular matrix peptides influences stem cells. In the first study, we studied the influence of synthetic polymer fibers on mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation. The results showed that the peptide-tethered nanofibers and soluble factors play an integrated role in the neural differentiation process, and that topography was less important in the cellular outcomes as nanofiber orientation did not influence neural differentiation. In the next study, we investigated whether a specific isoform of laminin supported neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation. We found laminin 511 was able to maintain NSC multipotency at a similar level to Matrigel, but for longer passages, and used this information to characterize the response of NSCs on hydrogel materials of different stiffness. We found that laminin 511 functionalized hydrogels maintained significantly high levels of multipotency compared to whole protein laminin and Arg-Gly-Glu (RGE) functionalized hydrogels. Overall, these studies demonstrated that shorter sequences of full-length laminin whole protein were able to illustrate specific interactions in vitro and provided a defined and controlled system in vitro. Therefore, we were able to investigate the influence of synthetic and immobilized microenvironmental cues on stem cell fate.
Rebecca Willits (Advisor)
Ge Zhang (Committee Member)
Nic Leipzig (Committee Member)
Amini Rouzbeh (Committee Member)
Jordan Renna (Committee Member)
242 p.
Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical Research; Polymers
stem cells; niche; microenvironment; NSC; ESC; hydrogel; nanofibers; multipotency; differentiation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Philip, D. L. (2021). The Influence of Synthetic Microenvironments in Determining Stem Cell Fate [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1627669247178055

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Philip, Diana. The Influence of Synthetic Microenvironments in Determining Stem Cell Fate. 2021. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1627669247178055.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Philip, Diana. "The Influence of Synthetic Microenvironments in Determining Stem Cell Fate." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1627669247178055

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

akron1627669247178055
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.