Tissue Engineering Lecture 13, 3/26/15 Paper Review 3D gels for ischemia

What is the motivation of this study? Much of current cell therapy relies on dosing cells at the site – many of which are lost during delivery. One mechanism to improve cell therapy is to encapsulate cells into a biomaterial – keeping the cells alive during the harsh delivery. The authors propose to deliver adipose(fat)- derived mesenchymal stem cells in very small injectable gels to protect them during delivery.

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Figure 1a-e: Jemima Lamothe

Figure 1f-i: Jonathan Hummel

Figure 2a-c: Michael Mulroy

Figure 2d: Ezra Aurian-Blajeni

Figure 3: Sarah Johnson

Figure 4a-b: Kyle Pariseau

Figure 4c-d: Ronen Zeidel

Figure 5: Matt Tiller

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Figure 6: Christine Davis

Conclusions, Perspectives By encapsulating cells in 3D microniches, they could use a dose more than 10 times lower than previous cell based therapies. Accumulation of ECM and paracrine signaling in the niches likely provided survival signals to cells. Priming was a key step to improving MSC differentiation prior to delivery.