Instructive scaffolds for tissue engineering

• Main Author: Cham, Hui Ting
• Other Authors: Chong Seow Khoon, Mark
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71206
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Following an implant insertion, an immune response is launched where macrophages play a large role in. Due to macrophages’ inherent ability to polarize within a spectrum of phenotypes ranging from healing to inflammatory, an imbalance of the phenotypic population at the implant site can result in scarring, prolonged inflammation or implant failure. Coatings applied on implant surfaces have been used as a method to regulate the immune response. Thus, to evaluate the potential of two small molecule inhibitors, Stattic and Fludarabine, as implant coatings, their effectiveness in modulating the resting macrophage phenotype has to be tested. This is done by encapsulating the small molecules in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles and incubating them with THP-1 differentiated macrophages. The macrophage phenotype is then characterized by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. At this point, only the establishment of a suitable differentiation procedure for differentiating THP-1 monocytes to resting macrophages that are capable of uptaking PLGA microparticles and polarizing to the healing phenotype, has been found. Further testing is required to confirm the resting macrophages’ ability to polarize to the inflammatory phenotype and to observe the effect of Stattic and Fludarabine on the resting macrophages.