Establishment of in vitro Three-Dimensional Human Brown Adipose Tissue-like Constructs.
Zhao, Nan.
2013
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Abstract: Obesity has
become a worldwide pandemic and there is an urgent need to develop efficient
anti-obesity therapies. Recent studies suggested that brown adipose tissue, which plays
a key role in thermogenesis, has potential to combat obesity. The aim of this study was
to establish a physiologically relevant human brown adipose tissue-like construct in
vitro as a first step toward studies ... read morewith this tissue related to potential treatments
for obesity. We successfully obtained the three-dimensional (3D) brown fat-like
constructs by seeding human adipose derived stem cells (hASCs) onto porous silk sponge
scaffolds, and treated the 3D constructs with media containing a cocktail of brown
adipose tissue (BAT) inducer. After 6 weeks of culture the cells on the scaffolds were
uncoupling protein 1(UCP1)-positive, rich in mitochondria, and filled with multi-locular
lipid droplets, all hallmarks of brown adipocytes. We believe that with further
characterization as well as functional analysis, the 3D brown fat-like tissue has the
potential to be useful as an in vitro platform for exploring human brown adipose tissue
functions. In future work, this tissue may also serve as a tissue-engineering based
therapy for in vivo implantation as a new anti-obesity
approach.
Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2013.
Submitted to the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering.
Advisor: David Kaplan.
Committee: David Kaplan, Qiaobing Xu, and Kyongbum Lee.
Keyword: Biomedical engineering.read less - ID:
- pv63gb69v
- Component ID:
- tufts:22052
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
