Papers by Author: Yao Ting Yu

Abstract: The chitosan scaffold we prepared have a high porosity of about 90% with pore sizes from 50 to 200m. Lactose was conjugated onto the inner surface of the highly porous chitosan scaffold. It was used as substrate for rat hepatocytes culture. The cell attachment ratio was much higher than on monolayer membrane and non-modified porous scaffold. Metabolic activities of the cells were evaluated in terms of albumin secretion and urea synthesis. It was found that hepatocytes cultured on the modified scaffolds showed an increase in albumin secretion during the first 4 days and were more stable than that on non-modified scaffold. The results showed that the microstructure of porous scaffolds provides large surface for cells to adhere and facilitates nutrient and oxygen transportation. Such lactose modified scaffold has a potential application in bioartificial liver support system.

Abstract: Phenylalanine linked to cellulose beads was designed as an adsorbent in whole blood hemoperfusion for the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis. In whole blood perfusion tests, the adsorbent adsorbed rheumatoid factors directly from whole blood. In vitro test showed that the adsorbent had good biocompability properties. No acute systemic toxicity and dermal irritancy with extremely low skin sensitizing activity were observed. In vivo animal test with satisfactory results was perfumed with rabbits. Experimental results show that the adsorbent holds promise as a highly effective and safe hemoadsorbent in clinical therapy for rheumatoid arthritis patients by hemoperfusion.

Abstract: Chitosan is considered to be a very promising biopolymer for various biomedical and pharmaceutical uses because of its nontoxic and biocompatible nature [1]. In this paper, we introduced and discussed chitosan-based biomaterials used for hepatocyte culture, including chitosan microcarriers, heparin and alginate modified chitosan scaffolds, collagen-chitosan complex and sugar-modified chitosan scaffold

Abstract: Recent study shows that endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and gene therapy technologies are effective strategies in the inhibition of stenosis and thrombus formation and improving the patency rate of the vascular graft in vivo. In this study, rat EPCs were cultured from bone marrow, and plated in fibronectin-coated plates with EBM-2 medium. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were cultured with alpha minimum essential medium ( -MEM). After two weeks, EPCs were immunohistochemically characterized using antibodies specific for endothelial cells. Retroviral vectors pMSCV-eNOS, pMSCV-tPA, pMSCV-LacZ and pMCSV-GFP were constructed. Retroviral particles were produced using packaging cell line 293T cells. Gene transfer was carried out by exposing cells to virus solution for 6 hours in the presence of 8µg/ml polybrene. For constructing vessels, MSCs and EPCs were seeded on fibronectin coated ePTFE graft in tissue culture condition for 2-4 weeks. The attachment and growth of cells were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our data showed that the EPCs expressed VEGF, Lectin BS-1, RECA-1, indicating they are endothelial lineage. The concentrated retroviral particles showed many folds higher transduction efficiency to NIH 3T3 cells than the commercial reagent Fugene. SEM data showed dense attachment of MSCs on the graft surface. MSCs/EPCs co-culture gave much better cell coverage on the graft than culture of EPCs alone.