Bioengineering Seminar Series: Wan-Ju Li

Friday, March 13, 2015
10:00 a.m.
Pepco Room (1105), Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Professor John Fisher
jpfisher@umd.edu

Wan-Ju Li, Ph.D.
Professor
Musculoskeletal Biology and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory
Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Priming Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering 

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) is a cell type that holds promise for cell therapy and regenerative medicine applications. However, one of the challenges associated with the use of MSCs for regenerative medicine is that MSCs isolated from adult tissues are often composed of heterogeneous cell populations. Another challenge is that MSCs become aged and senescent after several passages of cell expansion. To overcome these limits, we investigated MSCs derived from bone marrow (BM) and H1- and H9-embryonice stem cell (ESC) lines in terms of morphology, surface marker and growth factor receptor expression, proliferative capability, modulation of immune cell growth and multipotency, in order to evaluate ESC-MSCs as a cell source for potential regenerative applications. Our findings suggest that ESC-MSCs and BM-MSCs show differences in their surface marker profile and the capacities of proliferation, immunomodulation, and most importantly multi-lineage differentiation. Using modified chondrogenic medium with BMP7 and TGFβ1, H1-MSCs can be effectively induced as BM-MSCs for chondrogenesis.

In addition, our group has demonstrated that MSC differentiation is indeed greatly dependent on the environment of pre-differentiation culture. We found that osteoprotegerin (OPG), known as a potent anti-osteoclastogenic protein, was at the highest relative level among 507 soluble factors detected by the array and treating MSCs with OPG before osteogenic induction activated nuclear factor-kappaB to greatly increase subsequent osteogenesis. We also found that more cells retained MSC surface markers in hypoxic culture than those in normoxic culture, and hypoxia was able to enhance multilineage differentiation of MSCs and delay cellular senescence through increased production of macrophage migration inhibitory factor and activation of AKT signaling compared to normoxia. Taken together, our results suggest that the environment of MSC predifferentiation culture plays a critical role in regulating the differentiation capability of undifferentiated MSCs prior to committing to a tissue-specific lineage.

About the Speaker

Professor Wan-Ju Li is the Principal Investigator of the Musculoskeletal Biology and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also an affiliated faculty member in the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program and the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. His research interests lie in the fields of mesenchymal stem cell and musculoskeletal tissue regeneration and biology. Professor Li is a member of International Society for Stem Cell Research, Orthopaedic Research Society, Tissue Engineering International and Regenerative Medicine Society, American Society for Cell Biology, and American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. He has published 46 papers, 9 book chapters, and more than 60 abstracts. Many of his papers have been highly cited, including a paper published in 2002 has received more than 1500 citations and 3 other papers have been cited more than 400 times each. He holds 3 patents in cartilage, intervertebral disc, and tendon/ligament applications. Professor Li has received Fellow Award for Research Excellence from National Institutes of Health, and Young Investigator Research Award from North American Spine Society, and Nontenure Faculty Award from 3M. Professor Li is the editor-in-chief of Nanomaterials and Tissue Regeneration. He also serves in the editorial board of PLoS One, BioMed Research International, American Journal of Stem Cells, Journal of Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering, Formosan Journal of Musculoskeletal Disorders, and Journal of Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

 

 


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