Hi! I'm Roshni!
My name is Roshni Gandhi and I'm a Junior Biomedical Engineering Major at Rowan University. I joined the Vega Lab in September 2019 after hearing Dr. Sebastián Vega talk about the large-impact work his lab was conducting. I still remember my first day in the lab - I didn’t even know what sterile conditions were! And while I’m still learning new technicalities everyday, since then, I’ve been able to work on a number of projects with the aim to regenerate tissue!
The funny thing about research is for every question you answer, you create many more. I've found the work I’m doing to be highly rewarding, especially since it allows me to combine innovation from my engineering background and traditional research methods! I'm super excited to be able to share the work I'm doing with you :)
Gelatin-based Hydrogel with BMP-2 to Promote Osteogenic Differentiation in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Osteoporosis is a condition where bone density and bone quality is significantly reduced, greatly increasing the risk of fragility fractures. Current treatment options for osteoporosis are highly invasive and result in the need for long-term post-operative care. A minimally invasive approach that prevents fragility fractures would alleviate these concerns. The objective of this project is to develop a hydrogel-based platform to locally strengthen bone in regions prone to fragility fractures. The hypothesis is that the injectable hydrogels will be able to increase bone mass locally. Hydrogels are highly hydrated networks amenable to cell culture and human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are adult stromal cells with the ability to differentiate into bone-producing osteoblasts. Osteogenic differentiation (OD) is heavily influenced by the culture environment.
Hydrogels were created with the inclusion of a biologics to enhance OD and a thiol-containing cysteine group to covalently tether to the hydrogel. To better understand how hMSCs undergo OD within the hydrogels, hMSCs were cultured on two-dimensional (2D) gelatin-based hydrogels (20 kPa) with varying stiffnesses, either in the presence (Bone+) or absence (Bone-) of osteoinductive media. Expression of osteogenic biomarkers Runx2, osteocalcin, and alkaline phosphatase were quantified to evaluate the progression of OD after 3, 4, and 7 days in culture.
Expression of osteogenic biomarkers were significantly higher in Bone+ than in Bone- and the expression of osteogenic biomarkers is stiffness-dependent. Future work includes adding osteoinductive peptides to the hydrogels and testing these bioactive hydrogels on a femoral fracture animal model to evaluate clinical applicability.