tissue engineering
​Adipocyte Co-Culture
Autologous fat transfer is commonly used to restore volume in soft tissue defects, trauma, and oncologic resections. Fat grafting faces challenges including graft resorption, necrosis, and inadequate vascularization that can compromise outcomes and result in suboptimal results. This project is focused on exploring the interactions of co-culturing reset vascular endothelial cells (R-VEC) with adipose cells to elucidate adipose cell survival in vitro. Preliminary findings in our lab indicate that fat grafts enriched with R-VEC demonstrate greater adipocyte survival.
Perilipin stain verified viability of adipocyte.
Angiogenesis Assay
Autologous flaps require sufficient oxygenation and nutrients to vascularize transplanted tissue. Here, our lab has transduced adult human umbilical vein endothelial cells with ETV2 to become reset vascular endothelial cells. We have fabricated a novel microfluidic chip using reset vascular endothelial cells that mimics the tubular vasculature to more accurately study and develop perfusable microvascular networks in vitro.
