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Reporter Scaffolds for Clinically Relevant Cell Transplantation Studies

  • Biomaterials - Engineering Cell Behavior
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Abstract

There are a number of cell therapies that are either in clinical trials or moving toward clinical trials, particularly for diseases of the retina. One of the challenges with cell therapies is tracking the status of cells over time. Genetic manipulation can facilitate this, but it can limit the clinical application of the cells. There are a host of fluorophores that have been developed to assess the status of cells, but these molecules tend to be cleared rapidly from cells. There are preclinical strategies that use degradable scaffolds, and we hypothesized that these scaffolds could be used to track the state of cells during preclinical studies. In this work, we explored whether fluorophores could be delivered from simple scaffolds fabricated under extremely harsh conditions, be active upon release, and report on the cells growing on the scaffolds over time. We encapsulated CellROX® Green Reagent, and pHrodo™ Red AM in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds, showed that they could be delivered over weeks and were still active upon release and taken up by cells. These experiments provide the foundation for using scaffolds to deliver molecules to report on cells.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Steven J. Ryan Initiative for Macular Research and NIH Grant 1R56NS100732-01. Dr. Lavik is an inventor on intellectual property that includes the potential for incorporation of reporter molecules.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Morgan Bolger

  2. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Rebecca Groynom

  3. Louis Stokes Cleveland VA, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Kath Bogie

  4. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, 21250, USA

    Erin Lavik

Authors
  1. Morgan Bolger
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  2. Rebecca Groynom
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  3. Kath Bogie
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  4. Erin Lavik
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Correspondence to Erin Lavik.

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Associate Editor Jennifer West oversaw the review of this article.

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Bolger, M., Groynom, R., Bogie, K. et al. Reporter Scaffolds for Clinically Relevant Cell Transplantation Studies. Ann Biomed Eng 48, 1982–1990 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-019-02393-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-019-02393-z

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