Event Abstract Back to Event High throughput platform for rapid evaluation of cell and tissue response to 3D composite materials Christopher Bertucci1, Sriram Ramamoorthy2, Pankaj Karande2 and Deanna Thompson1 1 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Biomedical Engineering, United States 2 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Chemical Engineering, United States Introduction: Tissue regeneration occurs naturally in most tissues as cells act to remodel and rebuild damaged tissue by inducing structural and compositional changes, but fails to occur in large defects. Extracellular matrix (ECM) and growth factors (GFs) act synergistically to mediate cell processes critical for regeneration, and a comprehensive understanding is necessary to develop of advanced composite biomaterials. Screening becomes increasingly cost-prohibitive as the experimental space grows larger. In order to identify optimal ECM and GF combinations that promote tissue-specific regeneration, we employ a microscale system to rapidly investigate large experimental spaces efficiently and accurately distinguish between highly growth-permissive and growth-inhibitive 3D composite scaffolds. Materials and Methods: Gaskets for housing hydrogel samples were consrtucted from a 3D-printed mold for creating PDMS arrays. Primary rat neurons were seeded at 1*106 cells/mL into combinatorial libraries of laminin (LN:0-1500 µg/mL) and fibronectin (FN:0-250 µg/mL) mixed into collagen type I gels. Collagen type I (COL) was chosen as the substrate because it forms the basis for many tissues in vivo (including peripheral nerve tissue). 3D samples were evaluated for metabolism (Alamar Blue) and then fixed and stained for βIII-tubulin and nuclei. Samples were imaged using a Thermo Scientific Cellomics ArrayScan VT, image processing and analysis executed through ImageJ and MATLAB, and statistical analysis performed via ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD. Results and Discussion: Neurons were embedded in 10µL of 1mg/mL COL gels containing LN and FN and grown for 3 days. After 1 day, there was no difference in Alamar blue signal, indicating relatively even seeding between all sample groups (not shown). Following immunostaining, Z-stacks were taken and compressed images analyzed for neurite outgrowth. Neurite outgrowth was observed in all samples, and preliminary data indicates that significant neurite outgrowth over COL-only gels was observed in nearly all samples containing LN and/or FN (Figure 1). This platform can applied other cell types to rapidly quantify changes in metabolism, cell death and spreading, in addition to more advanced cell-specific processes such as migration and myelination (not shown). Furthermore, co-culture screenings investigating the neuronal outgrowth and glial migration within the same biomaterial screen would provide “tissue response” to a biomaterial library. Conclusions: This framework can rapidly assay large experimental spaces of composite biomaterials to identify optimal cell- and tissue-specific biomaterials. Ultimately, biomimetic synthetic alternatives to novel synergistic ECM-GF combinations found to promote cell growth and regeneration can be tuned using the same platform prior to downstream animal and clinical studies. Advanced biotherapeutics developed through microscale screening of appropriate cell responses will be cheaper and more effective than those derived using traditional macroscale strategies. NSF.1067208 (Karande and Thompson); NIH Training Grant Fellowship (Bertucci) Keywords: Hydrogel, Tissue Engineering, biomaterial, Cell response Conference: 10th World Biomaterials Congress, Montréal, Canada, 17 May - 22 May, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Biomaterials in constructing tissue substitutes Citation: Bertucci C, Ramamoorthy S, Karande P and Thompson D (2016). High throughput platform for rapid evaluation of cell and tissue response to 3D composite materials. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. Conference Abstract: 10th World Biomaterials Congress. doi: 10.3389/conf.FBIOE.2016.01.02979 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Mar 2016; Published Online: 30 Mar 2016. Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Christopher Bertucci Sriram Ramamoorthy Pankaj Karande Deanna Thompson Google Christopher Bertucci Sriram Ramamoorthy Pankaj Karande Deanna Thompson Google Scholar Christopher Bertucci Sriram Ramamoorthy Pankaj Karande Deanna Thompson PubMed Christopher Bertucci Sriram Ramamoorthy Pankaj Karande Deanna Thompson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.