Peptide based hydrogels in the study of mesenchymal stem cells for the purposes of regenerative medicine

Miller, Angela (2015) Peptide based hydrogels in the study of mesenchymal stem cells for the purposes of regenerative medicine. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Regenerative medicine is a vastly expanding subject area, with a number of different strategies and substrates being studied to ultimately create a model for repairing diseased and injured tissue. Stem cells are a promising cell type in this field as they are known to differentiate into a number of cell types and contribute to normal cell repair. However, despite their potential as a useful cell choice in the field of regenerative medicine, stem cell based therapies have limited potential due to their ability to form tumours when implanted in the human body, problems arising with immunogenicity and the difficulty in obtaining adequate cell numbers for transplantation.
To overcome these problems, many research groups are interested in using biomimetic substrates and scaffolds to mimic the architecture, chemical composition and stiffness properties of the in vivo cell niche and various human tissues, but in an in vitro setting. By doing so, the MSC behaviour can be studied and the differential lineages examined allowing the desired substrate to be tuned to obtain the desired cellular outcome.
In this work, hydrogels composed of Fmoc diphenylalanine and Fmoc Serine have been characterised and used to study changes in Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) responses in a two and three dimensional state. The results obtained from this work demonstrate that such hydrogels support MSC growth and produce a mixed phenotype population which differentiates over time. A further hydrogel paired with collagen has shown promise in promoting MSC differentiation down the osteogenic lineage and has potential for the future study in maxillofacial reconstruction models.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General); Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Supervisor's Name: Dalby, Professor Matthew
• Date of Award: 2015
• Depositing User: Mrs Angela Miller
• Unique ID: glathesis:2015-6880
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2015 16:54
• Last Modified: 22 Dec 2015 15:39
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/6880