14 DAY TRIAL // While still a research associate at the Harvard Medical School, expert Deepak Nagrath, now an assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Rice University, was looking for ways of producing scaffolds that could support the growing of cells. As he was testing various methods of accomplishing that, the scientist noticed that the cells produced a sticky substance. Thinking of it as a contaminant, he threw it away, and continued his work. Luckily, he then realized that what he thought was garbage was actually the very thing he was looking for.
The substance was being produced by the adipose cells of the human bodies, which are more widely known as body fat. The sticky stuff was, in essence, an advanced, natural extracellular matrix, that could be used to create a scaffold on which to grow various types of cells. This line of investigations is very scrutinized at this point, as biotechnology experts are looking for ways to develop new organs, such as artificial hearts, by growing a patient's own stem cells on a substrate matrix. As soon as this is achieved, bioreactors would ensure that the replacement organ can be transplanted in the person it was constructed for without the risk of rejection, and without the use of immunosuppressant drugs.
After Nagrath joined the faculty at Rice, in 2009, he and a group of colleagues set out to investigate the adipose cell byproduct, and managed to turn it into an efficient scaffold. Since then, the team was able to grow and mature a number of cell lines onto this substrate, demonstrating that it is an efficient tool for the job. More details of the group's research and results were published last week, in the latest issue of the respected Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal.
“Fat is one thing that is in excess in the body. We can always lose it. My approach is to force the cells to secrete a natural matrix,” the expert says. He termed the sticky substance Adipogel, and showed that it could be used efficiently for growing hepatocytes, the primary cells of the human liver. This particular cell line is very often used to test new types of drugs for various liver conditions, and so being able to benefit from a constant supply could aid researchers working in the field substantially.
“The short-term goal is to use this as a feeder layer for human embryonic stem cells. It's very hard to maintain them in the pluripotent state, where they keep dividing and are self-renewing. You can use this matrix as an adipogenic scaffold for stem cells and transplant it into the body where an organ is damaged. Then, we hope, these cells and the Adipogel can take over and improve their functionality,” Nagrath concludes.