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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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David Trac
PhD Proposal Presentation
Date: September 20th, 2017
Time: 3:30pm
Location: Health Sciences Research Building E360
Committee Members:
Michael E. Davis, PhD (Advisor)
Chunhui Xu, PhD
Steven L. Goudy, MD
Luke P. Brewster, MD, PhD
Joshua T. Maxwell, PhD
Improving the Therapeutic Functionality of Child Cardiac Progenitor Cells by Spherical Aggregation
Cardiac stem cell therapies have been limited by low differentiation rates and many studies have shown that upwards of 90% of cells are lost within a few days post-transplantation. Moreover, cardiac progenitor cells lose their regenerative potential as they age, occurring as early as 1 year old. Based on these limitations, current autologous stem cell therapies for heart failure may not be as effective as they could be. The goal of this proposed project is to improve the therapeutic functionality of child (>1 year old) cardiac progenitor cells by aggregating them into scaffold-free spheres. The overall hypothesis is that the three-dimensional microenvironment may recapitulate signaling processes within the native cardiac stem cell niche, particularly Notch1. This signaling may improve the differentiation of child cardiac progenitor cells into mature cardiac phenotypes. Additionally, the effect of cardiac progenitor cell aggregation on exosome content will be investigated, as cardiac progenitor cell-derived exosomes have been shown to play a key role in cardioprotection. Finally, the ability of aggregated cardiac progenitor cells to improve cardiac function, compared to monolayer cultured cells, will be assessed in a rat right ventricular heart failure model.
