Microfluidic Isolation of Endothelial Progenitor Cells for Vascular Tissue Engineering

In the last decade, the regenerative ability of stem and progenitor cells has been demonstrated in several types of tissue. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which are naturally present in circulating blood, are an especially interesting cell type because they have the ability to repair damaged blood vessels. EPCs have been utilized as precursors in the in vitro cultivation of vascular grafts. As tissue engineering and cell-based therapeutics begin the transition from the laboratory to clinical applications, the availability of robust and simple cell isolation techniques becomes significant. The use of antibody coated channels for cell capture in microfluidic devices has recently been applied to several applications.;The principal goal this thesis is to create microfluidic cell separations systems to isolate or enrich key cell types for tissue engineering applications. In tissue engineering functional cell types must be enriched prior to seeding onto scaffolds. In cell based approaches to tissue repair and regeneration stem and progenitor cells present in certain types must be isolated and characterized prior to use. The adhesion of cells to a functionalized surface is the basis for this type of separation. This work demonstrated the viability of using a PEG-alginate hydrogel for the purification of EPCs. Further it was shown that the coating is agnostic to substrate type. Cells isolated via this hydrogel behaved as expected both in vitro and in vivo. This demonstrates the ability to use this platform for tissue engineering applications, basic research, and cellular based therapies to isolate EPCs in a rapid, rigorous, and inexpensive fashion. This represents a step forward in cell purification methods.