1st Edition

A Laboratory Course in Tissue Engineering

By Melissa Kurtis Micou, Dawn Kilkenny Copyright 2013
    304 Pages 71 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    304 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Filling the need for a lab textbook in this rapidly growing field, A Laboratory Course in Tissue Engineering helps students develop hands-on experience. The book contains fifteen standalone experiments based on both classic tissue-engineering approaches and recent advances in the field. Experiments encompass a set of widely applicable techniques: cell culture, microscopy, histology, immunohistochemistry, mechanical testing, soft lithography, and common biochemical assays. In addition to teaching these specific techniques, the experiments emphasize engineering analysis, mathematical modeling, and statistical experimental design.

    A Solid Foundation in Tissue Engineering—and Communication Skills

    Each experiment includes background information, learning objectives, an overview, safety notes, a list of materials, recipes, methods, pre- and postlab questions, and references. Emphasizing the importance for engineering students to develop strong communication skills, each experiment also contains a data analysis and reporting section that supplies a framework for succinctly documenting key results. A separate chapter provides guidelines for reporting results in the form of a technical report, journal article, extended abstract, abstract, or technical poster.

    Customize Your Courses with More Than a Semester’s Worth of Experiments

    The book is a convenient source of instructional material appropriate for undergraduate or graduate students with fundamental knowledge of engineering and cell biology. All of the experiments have been extensively tested to improve the likelihood of successful data collection. In addition, to minimize lab costs, the experiments make extensive use of equipment commonly found in laboratories equipped for tissue culture. A solutions manual, available with qualifying course adoption, includes answers to pre- and postlab questions, suggested equipment suppliers and product numbers, and other resources to help plan a new tissue engineering course.

    Getting Started in the Lab

    Lab Safety

    Essential Lab Skills for Tissue Engineers

    Isolation of Primary Chondrocytes from Bovine Articular Cartilage

    Measuring and Modeling Growth of a Cell Population

    Purification of a Cell Population Using Magnetic Cell Sorting

    Decellularized Matrices for Tissue Engineering

    Effect of Plating Density on Cell Adhesion to Varied Culture Matrices

    Dynamic versus Static Seeding of Cells onto Biomaterial Scaffolds

    Cell Patterning Using Microcontact Printing

    Measuring and Modeling the Motility of a Cell Population Using an Under-Agarose Assay

    Characterizing Matrix Remodeling through Collagen Gel Contraction

    Effect of Substrate Stiffness on Cell Differentiation

    Effect of Culture Configuration (Two versus Three Dimensions) on Matrix Accumulation

    Combining In Silico and In Vitro Techniques to Engineer Pluripotent Stem Cell Fate

    The FahraeusLindqvist Effect: Using Microchannels to Observe Small Vessel Hemodynamics

    Examining Single-Cell Mechanics Using a Microfluidic Micropipette Aspiration System

    Contribution of Tissue Composition to Bone Material Properties

    Technical Communication: Presenting Your Findings

    Appendix 1: Trypsinizing a Cell Monolayer

    Appendix 2: Counting Cells with a Hemacytometer

    Appendix 3: PicoGreen® DNA Assay

    Appendix 4: Dimethylmethylene Blue (DMMB) Assay for Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans

    Appendix 5: Microfluidic Device Design and Fabrication

    Index

    Biography

    Melissa Kurtis Micou , Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego. She has taught tissue-engineering lecture and lab courses for undergraduate students for the past ten years. Dawn M. Kilkenny , Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), University of Toronto, and is academic advisor to the IBBME undergraduate teaching laboratory. Her research interests include cellular signaling, fluorescent protein technology, and microscopy.

    "The book is well organized to teach cell culture and tissue engineering experiments to novice and experienced students. There is a quantitative emphasis in the book that strengthens the ‘engineering’ part of tissue engineering."
    —Ann Saterbak, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA

    "… an excellent handbook for graduate students and investigators who are new in tissue engineering area. … The approaches and topics selected are appropriate for not only undergraduate but also graduate students and new investigators in this area."
    —Sha Jin, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA

    "This book has a protocol-like style and can actually be used directly by teachers to prepare lab courses as well as by people with lab experience that enter the field of tissue engineering. … provides students with good insight in methods, techniques and approaches in the field of tissue engineering."
    —Gerjo J.V.M. van Osch, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands

    "… a much-needed book for undergraduate bioengineering curricula. Tissue engineering is a topic best learned through practice, and this book just might take the fear out of offering a laboratory course on the subject."
    —Michael J. Moore, Ph.D., Tulane University, New Orleans

    "… provides comprehensive coverage of laboratory techniques in tissue engineering, including detailed experimental protocols."
    —Adam Higgins, Oregon State University, Corvallis