Dr. Dušan Babič: Growing Cells on Colloidal Scaffolds

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Povzetek:

   Growing Cells on Colloidal Scaffolds

   Dr. Dušan Babič, Fakulteta za matematiko in fiziko, Univerza v Ljubljani

One of the struggles in regenerative medicine is a development of methods for successful growing of an organ tissue (i.e. skin, bone cartilage etc.) which is used in therapy to replace and/or promote healing of the damaged one. A correct tissue growth and formation require an appropriate three-dimensional substrate or scaffold. This is usually a foam like structure composed of interconnected patches of a base material. The scaffold needs to be able to support cells and promote their growth. In Laboratory for Experimental Soft Matter we have developed a flexible method for producing such substrates with super-paramagnetic colloids. The method provides a control over the general structure of the scaffold such as its orientation, branching and void size distribution.

In my talk I will present the method and underlying physical mechanisms of colloidal self assembly. Further I will show the results of experiments in which living cells were successfully grown on so produced colloidal scaffolds. We demonstrated that the cells successfully adhere to the scaffolding structure which is able to support their weight and retain its structural integrity. In our simple growth chamber cells survived and proliferated for several days which is a prerequisite for any successful tissue growth.