Myocardial infarction afflicts millions of people. Infarcted heart tissue leaves patients with dysfunctional regions of cardiac muscle, which decreases cardiac function. While multiple treatments exist, most do not restore functional myocardium. The project goal was to develop a system to co-culture cardiac myocytes with mesenchymal stem cells to promote the expression of myocyte cell cycle markers, an indication of proliferation. We have demonstrated that this co-culture system is effective in culturing two discrete cell populations that can exchange media without cell-cell contact. This yields a pure population of cells that could be delivered to the heart to replace damaged myocardium. This design may also be used to co-culture any two cell types with adaptable spatial relationships.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Ting, Cara Marie
• Gutowski, Stacie Marie
• Budiman, Tantra Satria

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042308-151047

Advisor

• Pins, George D
• Gaudette, Glenn R.

Year

• 2008

Date created

• 2008-04-23

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biomedical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2021-02-01