title: Growth and positioning of adipose-derived stem cells in microfluidic devices.
abstract: Stem cells hold great promise for treatment of various degenerative diseases. However, clinical studies have only shown very moderate benefits of cell therapy. We believe that insufficiency of therapeutic benefits is due to limited homing of implanted stem cells to targeted organs. Microfluidic devices are a very useful research tool for quantitative characterizations of stem cells. The present study therefore was to assess the effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and direct current electric field (dcEF) on the growth and trafficking of adipose-derived stem cells (ASC). It was found that EGF did not affect cell proliferation in cell-culture flasks. However, ASC proliferated at a higher rate in microfluidic devices with continuous infusion of EGF. Furthermore, we found that ASC migrated toward an EGF gradient in microfluidic devices. Moreover, we found that ASC tended to position perpendicularly to dcEF. The results suggest that EGF and dcEF may be effective in guiding homing and trafficking of implanted ASC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wadhawan
authors.forename: Harmandeep
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kalkat
authors.forename: Kanmani
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Natarajan
authors.forename: Xiuli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Sivakumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gajjeraman
authors.forename: Saravanan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nandagopal
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jixian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Shadreck
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mzengeza
authors.forename: Darren H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Freed
authors.forename: Rakesh C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Ganghong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology*; D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D051381:Rats; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor