title: The Use of Silk as a Scaffold for Mature, Sustainable Unilocular Adipose 3D Tissue Engineered Systems.
abstract: There is a critical need for monitoring physiologically relevant, sustainable, human adipose tissues in vitro to gain new insights into metabolic diseases. To support long-term culture, a 3D silk scaffold assisted culture system is developed that maintains mature unilocular adipocytes ex vivo in coculture with preadipocytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells obtained from small volumes of liquefied adipose samples. Without the silk scaffold, adipose tissue explants cannot be sustained in long-term culture (3 months) due to their fragility. Adjustments to media components are used to tune lipid metabolism and proliferation, in addition to responsiveness to an inflammatory stimulus. Interestingly, patient specific responses to TNFα stimulation are observed, providing a proof-of-concept translational technique for patient specific disease modeling in the future. In summary, this novel 3D scaffold assisted approach is required for establishing physiologically relevant, sustainable, human adipose tissue systems from small volumes of lipoaspirate, making this methodology of great value to studies of metabolism, adipokine-driven diseases, and other diseases where the roles of adipocytes are only now becoming uncovered.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Rosalyn D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Harvard Institute, 4 Blackfan Circle, 2nd Floor, Suite 240, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Michaela R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Reagan
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Francis E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Borowsky
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zieba
authors.affiliation: Departments of Plastic Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, 450 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA.
authors.forename: Kacey G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Marra
authors.affiliation: Departments of Plastic Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, 450 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA.
authors.forename: J Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Harvard Institute, 4 Blackfan Circle, 2nd Floor, Suite 240, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Irene M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Ghobrial
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby St, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D017667:Adipocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D047011:Silk
keywords: adipose; explant; patient specific approach; tissue engineering; unilocular morphology