Nagrath, Deepak2012-09-062012-09-062012-09-062012-09-062012-052012-09-05May 2012Damm, Aaron. "A Novel Human Adipocyte-Derived Basement Membrane for Tissue Engineering Applications." (2012) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/64639">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/64639</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/64639Tissue engineering strategies have traditionally focused on the use of synthetic polymers as support scaffolds for cell growth. Recently, strategies have shifted towards a natural biologically derived scaffold, with the main focus on decellularized organs. Here, we report the development and engineering of a scaffold naturally secreted by human preadipocytes during differentiation. During this differentiation process, the preadipocytes remodel the extracellular matrix by releasing new extracellular proteins. Finally, we investigated the viability of the new basement membrane as a scaffold for tissue engineering using human pancreatic islets, and as a scaffold for soft tissue repair. After identifying the original scaffold material, we sought to improve the yield of material, treating the cell as a bioreactor, through various nutritional and cytokine stimuli. The results suggest that adipocytes can be used as bioreactors to produce a designer-specified engineered human extracellular matrix scaffold for specific tissue engineering applications.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.AdipocytesHumalipogelBioscaffoldExtracellular matrixGrowth factorNatural biomaterialsThesis2012-09-06123456789/ETD-2012-05-89